ABSTRACT
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 (â¼1013 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.
Subject(s)
Internet of Things , PhotonsABSTRACT
Herein, it is reported that the polymorphism in the helical nanofilament (HNF, B4 ) liquid-crystalline phase depends on the fabrication methods, that is, UV-driven formation and template-assisted self-assembly in the nanoconfined geometry. As a result, uniaxially oriented HNFs with different helical structures were obtained, in which generation of the twisted-ribbon and cylindrical-ribbon polymorphs showed that even the molecular lattice has a different orientation. The detailed structures were directly observed by SEM and grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction with synchrotron radiation. The resultant polymorphs could be used in chiro-optical applications due to the capability for fine control of the helical structures.
ABSTRACT
Janus-type structures were obtained from gold nanoparticles grafted with two types of chemically incompatible mesogenic ligands with a strong tendency for nano-segregation. A lamellar arrangement, in which metallic nanoparticle-rich sublayers are separated by organic ligand-rich sublayers of various composition, was formed due to the ligand segregation process. The layers could be easily aligned by mechanical shearing; for most materials the layer normal was parallel to the shearing direction but perpendicular to the shearing gradient, such transverse mode is only rarely observed for lamellar materials. Reversible changes of layer thickness under UV light were observed due to the presence of an azo-moiety in the organic ligand molecules.
ABSTRACT
[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1039/D1RA00547B.].
ABSTRACT
The color change of photonic crystals (PCs) has been widely studied due to their beauty and anti-counterfeiting applications. Herein, we demonstrated security codes based on chiral PCs that cannot be easily mimicked and are quite different from the conventional technology used currently. The chiral PCs can be made by self-assembly and the structural colors change based on the polarization of the light in the transmission mode. These color changes are easily detected in real-time and are useful in the fabrication of anti-counterfeiting patterns that show beautiful and diverse color changes with rotating polarizers. We believe this can provide a new platform in various security and color-based applications.
ABSTRACT
A series of newly synthesised rod-like polycatenar mesogens forms columnar phases, with the number of molecules in the column cross section depending on the core rigidity. For non-symmetric molecules, an additional density modulation, namely helical arrangement of molecules with a periodicity of approximately 10 molecular distances develops along the columns. For one of the compounds, a new type of columnar liquid crystal phase with 3D positional order is observed. Introducing a stilbene unit in the mesogenic core enhances the fluorescent properties of the compounds. In the hexagonal columnar phase, polarised light emission is observed.
