To introduce wavelet packet transform into optical transform and improve the recognition performance of optical iris recognition,optical wavelet packet transform is proposed based on the analysis of the necessary condition for optical wavelet transform. Using the eigen-image based correlation recognition method and replacing the entropy criterion with the identification rate for iris recognition,the joint best wavelet packet bases for the whole image bank are chosen. Corresponding eigen images are generated. To further improve the performance of optical iris recognition,an optical wavelet packet filter is designed through linearly combining these wavelet packet bases. The filter is inserted in a volume holographic opto-electronic hybrid iris recognition system for feature extraction. The wavelet packet features extracted correlate with the eigen images stored in the photorefractive crystal. The correlation fesults are captured and transferred to a computer for post processing. In simulation,the mother wavelet,Db4,is utilized. Four wavelet packet bases are selected. The filter can obviously improve the identification rate from 90.91% to 95.45%. This result not only proves the efficiency of the filter designed but also shows that the capacity of optical information processing is enhanced after the introduction of wavelet packet transform into optics.