Unclonable Micro-Texture with Clonable Micro-Shape towards Rapid, Convenient, and Low-Cost Fluorescent Anti-Counterfeiting Labels

Photochemical Design for Diverse Controllable Patterns in Self-Wrinkling Films

Harnessing the spontaneous surface instability of pliable substances to create intricate, well-ordered, and on-demand controlled surface patterns holds great potential for advancing applications in optical, electrical, and biological processes. However, the current limitations stem from challenges in modulating multidirectional stress fields and diverse boundary environments. Herein, this work proposes a universal strategy to achieve arbitrarily controllable wrinkle patterns via the spatiotemporal photochemical boundaries. Utilizing constraints and inductive effects of the photochemical boundaries, the multiple coupling relationship is accomplished among the light fields, stress fields, and morphology of wrinkles in photosensitive polyurethane (PSPU) film. Moreover, employing sequential light-irradiation with photomask enables the attainment of a diverse array of controllable patterns, ranging from highly ordered 2D patterns to periodic or intricate designs. The fundamental mechanics of underlying buckling and the formation of surface features are comprehensively elucidated through theoretical stimulation and finite element analysis. The results reveal the evolution laws of wrinkles under photochemical boundaries and represent a new effective toolkit for fabricating intricate and captivating patterns in single-layer films.

Three-Dimensionally Printed, Vertical Full-Color Display Pixels for Multiplexed Anticounterfeiting

Information encryption strategies have become increasingly essential. Most of the fluorescent security patterns have been made with a lateral configuration of red, green, and blue subpixels, limiting the pixel density and security level. Here we report vertically stacked, luminescent heterojunction micropixels that construct high-resolution, multiplexed anticounterfeiting labels. This is enabled by meniscus-guided three-dimensional (3D) microprinting of red, green, and blue (RGB) dye-doped materials. High-precision vertical stacking of subpixel segments achieves full-color pixels without sacrificing lateral resolution, achieving a small pixel size of ∼μm and a high density of over 13,000 pixels per inch. Furthermore, a full-scale color synthesis for individual pixels is developed by modulating the lengths of the RGB subpixels. Taking advantage of these unique 3D structural designs, trichannel multiplexed anticounterfeiting Quick Response codes are successfully demonstrated. We expect that this work will advance data encryption technology while also providing a versatile manufacturing platform for diverse 3D display devices.

Microwell Confined Electro-Coalescence for Rapid Formation of High-Throughput Droplet Array

Droplet array is widely applied in single cell analysis, drug screening, protein crystallization, etc. This work proposes and validates a method for rapid formation of uniform droplet array based on microwell confined droplets electro-coalescence of screen-printed emulsion droplets, namely electro-coalescence droplet array (ECDA). The electro-coalescence of droplets is according to the polarization induced electrostatic and dielectrophoretic forces, and the dielectrowetting effect. The photolithographically fabricated microwells are highly regular and reproducible, ensuring identical volume and physical confinement to achieve uniform droplet array, and meanwhile the microwell isolation protects the paired water droplets from further fusion and broadens its feasibility to different fluidic systems. Under optimized conditions, a droplet array with an average diameter of 85 µm and a throughput of 106 in a 10 cm × 10 cm chip can be achieved within 5 s at 120 Vpp and 50 kHz. This ECDA chip is validated for various microwell geometries and functional materials. The optimized ECDA are successfully applied for digital viable bacteria counting, showing comparable results to the plate culture counting. Such an ECDA chip, as a digitizable and high-throughput platform, presents excellent potential for high-throughput screening, analysis, absolute quantification, etc.

Machine Learning Attacks-Resistant Security by Mixed-Assembled Layers-Inserted Graphene Physically Unclonable Function

Mixed layers of octadecyltrichlorosilane (ODTS) and 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorooctyltriethoxysilane (FOTS) on an active layer of graphene are used to induce a disordered doping state and form a robust defense system against machine-learning attacks (ML attacks). The resulting security key is formed from a 12 × 12 array of currents produced at a low voltage of 100 mV. The uniformity and inter-Hamming distance (HD) of the security key are 50.0 ± 12.3% and 45.5 ± 16.7%, respectively, indicating higher security performance than other graphene-based security keys. Raman spectroscopy confirmed the uniqueness of the 10,000 points, with the degree of shift of the G peak distinguishing the number of carriers. The resulting defense system has a 10.33% ML attack accuracy, while a FOTS-inserted graphene device is easily predictable with a 44.81% ML attack accuracy.

Low-temperature in situ preparation of Eu3+/Tb3+-doped CaMoO4/SrMoO4 nanoparticle thin films and their application in anti-counterfeiting

Rare earth-doped metal oxide thin films exhibit remarkable potential for application in anti-counterfeiting, owing to their exceptional fluorescent properties. However, the existing fabrication techniques for these rare earth-doped luminescent thin films are predominantly complex and necessitate high-temperature conditions. In light of this issue, we present a low-temperature method for in situ fabrication of luminescent Ca1-xMoO4:Eux3+ and Sr1-xMoO4:Tbx3+ nanocrystal thin films by a solution deposition process. The developed method has the advantages of simple operation, rapid and low-temperature synthesis. The optimal chemical compositions of molybdate-based luminescent films are Ca0.90MoO4:Eu0.103+ and Sr0.90MoO4:Tb0.103+. Moreover, we evaluate the practical feasibility of luminescent nanoparticle films in the field of anti-counterfeiting by combining the unique fluorescent properties of rare earth ions and designing customized fluorescent patterns.

Tunable Key-Size Physical Unclonable Functions Based on Phase Segregation in Mixed Halide Perovskites

Optical physical unclonable functions (PUFs) have been considered as an effective tool for anti-counterfeiting owing to the uncontrollable manufacturing process and excellent resistance to machine-learning attacks. However, most optical PUFs exhibit fixed challenge-response pairs and static encoding structures after they are manufactured, which significantly impedes the actual development. Herein, we propose a tunable key-size PUF based on reversible phase segregation in mixed halide perovskites with uncontrollable Br/I ratios under variable power densities. The basic performance of encryption keys of low and high power density was evaluated and indicated a high degree of uniformity, uniqueness, and readout repeatability. Merging the binary keys of low and high power density, tunable key-size PUF is realized with higher security. The proposed tunable key-size PUF offers new insights into the development of dynamic-structure PUFs and demonstrates a novel scheme for achieving higher security of anti-counterfeiting and authentication.

Random fractal-enabled physical unclonable functions with dynamic AI authentication

A physical unclonable function (PUF) is a foundation of anti-counterfeiting processes due to its inherent uniqueness. However, the self-limitation of conventional graphical/spectral PUFs in materials often makes it difficult to have both high code flexibility and high environmental stability in practice. In this study, we propose a universal, fractal-guided film annealing strategy to realize the random Au network-based PUFs that can be designed on demand in complexity, enabling the tags' intrinsic uniqueness and stability. A dynamic deep learning-based authentication system with an expandable database is built to identify and trace the PUFs, achieving an efficient and reliable authentication with 0% "false positives". Based on the roughening-enabled plasmonic network platform, Raman-based chemical encoding is conceptionally demonstrated, showing the potential for improvements in security. The configurable tags in mass production can serve as competitive PUF carriers for high-level anti-counterfeiting and data encryption.

Femtosecond Laser Ablation of Quantum Dot Films toward Physical Unclonable Multilevel Fluorescent Anticounterfeiting Labels

Femtosecond laser ablation (FsLA) technology has been demonstrated to achieve programmable ablation and removal of diverse materials with high precision. Owing to the cross-scale and digital processing characteristics, the FsLA technology has attracted increasing interest. However, the moderate repeatability of FsLA limits its application in the fabrication of advanced micro-/nanostructures due to the nonidentity of each laser pulse and fluctuation of environment. Fortunately, moderate repeatability combined with programmable ablation and high precision perfectly matches with the technical requirements of a physical unclonable fluorescent anticounterfeiting label. Herein, we applied FsLA to quantum dot (QD) films to fabricate a physical unclonable multilevel fluorescent anticounterfeiting label. Visual Jilin University logos, quick response (QR) codes, microlines, and microholes have been achieved for the multilevel anticounterfeiting functions. Of particular significance, the microholes with a macroidentical and microidentifiable geometry guarantee the physical unclonable functions (PUFs). Moreover, the fluorescent anticounterfeiting label is compatible with deep learning algorithms that facilitate authentication to be convenient and accurate. This work shows a fantastic future potential to be a core anticounterfeiting technique for commercial products and drugs.

Synthesis of MAPbBr3 -Polymer Composite Films by Photolysis of DMF: Toward Transparent and Flexible Optical Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) with Hierarchical Multilevel Complexity

Physical entities with inherent randomness have been investigated as anti-counterfeiting labels based on physical unclonable functions (PUFs). Herein, a transparent and flexible optical PUF label associated with multilevel complexity is demonstrated by taking advantage of the optical properties of hierarchical morphologies of the composite film composed of metal halide perovskite nanoparticles (MAPbBr₃ NPs) and the intrinsic spinodal-decomposition-like phase separation of polymer blend (PMMA/PS blend). Due to the combinatorial effects of the photolysis synthesis of MAPbBr₃ and the thermodynamic instability of the PMMA/PS blend, randomized patterns emerge at two-level scales. These patterns are intrinsically non-deterministic, and therefore, the PUF labels from the multilevel random patterns are challenging to replicate. This is mainly attributed to random spot patterns (higher-level patterns) confined within intricate bicontinuous patterns (lower-level patterns).

A Texture-Hidden Anti-Counterfeiting QR Code and Authentication Method

This paper designs a texture-hidden QR code to prevent the illegal copying of a QR code due to its lack of anti-counterfeiting ability. Combining random texture patterns and a refined QR code, the code is not only capable of regular coding but also has a strong anti-copying capability. Based on the proposed code, a quality assessment algorithm (MAF) and a dual feature detection algorithm (DFDA) are also proposed. The MAF is compared with several current algorithms without reference and achieves a 95% and 96% accuracy for blur type and blur degree, respectively. The DFDA is compared with various texture and corner methods and achieves an accuracy, precision, and recall of up to 100%, and also performs well on attacked datasets with reduction and cut. Experiments on self-built datasets show that the code designed in this paper has excellent feasibility and anti-counterfeiting performance.

Split-Ring Structured All-Inorganic Perovskite Photodetector Arrays for Masterly Internet of Things

Photodetectors with long detection distances and fast response are important media in constructing a non-contact human-machine interface for the Masterly Internet of Things (MIT). All-inorganic perovskites have excellent optoelectronic performance with high moisture and oxygen resistance, making them one of the promising candidates for high-performance photodetectors, but a simple, low-cost and reliable fabrication technology is urgently needed. Here, a dual-function laser etching method is developed to complete both the lyophilic split-ring structure and electrode patterning. This novel split-ring structure can capture the perovskite precursor droplet efficiently and achieve the uniform and compact deposition of CsPbBr3 films. Furthermore, our devices based on laterally conducting split-ring structured photodetectors possess outstanding performance, including the maximum responsivity of 1.44 × 105 mA W-1, a response time of 150 μs in 1.5 kHz and one-unit area < 4 × 10-2 mm2. Based on these split-ring photodetector arrays, we realized three-dimensional gesture detection with up to 100 mm distance detection and up to 600 mm s-1 speed detection, for low-cost, integrative, and non-contact human-machine interfaces. Finally, we applied this MIT to wearable and flexible digital gesture recognition watch panel, safe and comfortable central controller integrated on the car screen, and remote control of the robot, demonstrating the broad potential applications.

Racemized photonic crystals for physical unclonable function

As Internet of Things-based technologies continue to digitalize our society, the development of secure and robust identification systems against evolving adversaries remains a grave challenge. Recently, physical unclonable functions (PUFs) have garnered tremendous scientific interest due to their intrinsic randomness, which makes them difficult to counterfeit. Herein, we present a facile approach for fabricating optical PUFs using spontaneous mirror symmetry breaking of molecular self-assembly. The PUF composed of racemic helical structures that generate chiroptical signals exhibits high encoding capacity (∼10^13 000), precise recognition rate, and impressive reconfigurability. The present study demonstrates that the utilization of random symmetry breaking is a promising approach to the design of high-level security systems.

Materials with Tunable Optical Properties for Wearable Epidermal Sensing in Health Monitoring

Advances in wearable epidermal sensors have revolutionized the way that physiological signals are captured and measured for health monitoring. One major challenge is to convert physiological signals to easily readable signals in a convenient way. One possibility for wearable epidermal sensors is based on visible readouts. There are a range of materials whose optical properties can be tuned by parameters such as temperature, pH, light, and electric fields. Herein, this review covers and highlights a set of materials with tunable optical properties and their integration into wearable epidermal sensors for health monitoring. Specifically, the recent progress, fabrication, and applications of these materials for wearable epidermal sensors are summarized and discussed. Finally, the challenges and perspectives for the next generation wearable devices are proposed.

Modulation of the Host-Guest-Guest Interactions in a Metal-Organic Framework for Multiple Anticounterfeiting Applications

Developing fluorescent materials with multiple and tunable emissions under different conditions is necessary to meet the growing demand for optical anticounterfeiting technology. Different modes of fluorescence emission can be obtained by loading multiple fluorescent components into metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and modulating the interaction among them for multiple anticounterfeiting purposes. Herein, a Cd-based MOF (HNU-60) was constructed as a host to encapsulate both lanthanide ions and carbon quantum dots. Multiple fluorescence emissions can be achieved by modulation of host-guest and guest-guest interaction, which holds promise for multiple anticounterfeiting applications. This work opens the opportunity to construct the hybrid MOF-based materials with controlled fluorescence properties for emerging anticounterfeiting applications in various fields.

Optical anticounterfeiting photonic bilayer film based on handedness of solid-state helicoidal structure

Anticounterfeiting photonic bilayer films were fabricated by sandwiching two solid-state cholesteric liquid crystal films having different handedness. The fabricated photonic bilayer films were successfully applied to patterning by selective photopolymerization. This photonic bilayer film as a new cryptographic technology is of interest for its anticounterfeiting application.