Bioinspired multichannel colorful encryption through kirigami activating grating

Area of Science:

• Optics and Photonics
• Materials Science
• Information Security

Background:

• Optical encryption is vital, utilizing light properties for secure data transmission.
• Responsive structural color materials offer visible feedback but face challenges in repeatability and speed.
• Existing methods for multichannel structural color encryption are limited.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a general multichannel information encryption strategy using responsive structural color materials.
• To overcome limitations of poor repeatability and slow feedback in existing materials.
• To explore bioinspired designs for advanced optical encryption.

Main Methods:

• Designed a two-dimensional deformable kirigami structure with tunable grating orientations.
• Investigated the relationship between topological space deformation and optical property changes.
• Demonstrated rapid, repeatable, and programmable color changes in response to mechanical stimuli.

Main Results:

• The kirigami grating sheet exhibited rapid and repeatable color changes.
• The strategy enabled programmable control over optical properties.
• Successful demonstration of multichannel information encryption using structural color variations.

Conclusions:

• A novel bioinspired multichannel optical encryption strategy was successfully developed.
• The kirigami-based approach offers significant improvements in speed and repeatability.
• This work opens new avenues for spatial/spectral encryption, mechano-sensing, and camouflage.