Unclonable Encryption-Verification Strategy Based on Bilayer Shape Memory Photonic Crystals

The ability to reversibly exhibit structural color patterns has positioned photonic crystals (PCs) at the forefront of anti-counterfeiting. However, the security offered by the mere reversible display is susceptible to illicit alteration and disclosure. Herein, inspired by the electronic message captcha, bilayer photonic crystal (BPC) systems with integrated decryption and verification modules, are realized by combining inverse opal (IO) and double inverse opal (DIO) with polyacrylate polymers. When the informationized BPC is immersed in ethanol or water, the DIO layer displayed encrypted information due to the solvent-induced ordered rearrangement of polystyrene (PS) microspheres. The verification step is established based on the different structural colors of the IO layer pattern, which result from the deformation or recovery of the macroporous skeleton induced by solvent evaporation. Moreover, through the evaporation-induced random self-assembly of PS@SiO₂ and SiO₂ microspheres, unclonable structurally colored identifying codes are created in the IO layer, ensuring the uniqueness upon the verification. The decrypted code in the DIO layer is valid only when the IO layer displays the pattern with the predetermined structural color; otherwise, it is a pseudo-code. This structural color-based "decryption-verification" approach offers innovative anti-counterfeiting applications in nanophotonics.