1. An infrared holographic projector comprising: a grey-scale input image related to a thermal signature of an object, said grey-scale input image having at least three intensity levels; a laser source configured to generate a laser beam in a narrowband including a source wavelength in an infrared spectral range; and an infrared transmissive material having a surface arranged to provide differing amounts of phase-delay to the first laser beam as the beam passes through the material, said surface comprising at least four phase delay layers that correspond to an integer multiple of quarter-wavelengths of total phase delay at a center wavelength, each layer providing a predetermined phase delay at the center wavelength, said surface configured to encode the grey-scale input image, said surface configured to diffract the laser beam at the source wavelength at or near the center wavelength to construct a projected image in the infrared spectrum, said projected image being a reconstruction of the grey-scale input image that forms a decoy that approximates the thermal signature of the object or a mask that obscures the thermal signature of the object.