Reversible and Reconfigurable Optical Physical Unclonable Functions with Elastic Liquid Crystal Scatterers.

Area of Science:

• Optoelectronics
• Applied Physics
• Cybersecurity

Background:

• Fixed-mapping physical unclonable functions (PUFs) are vulnerable to machine learning attacks in network security.
• Reconfigurable PUFs offer enhanced security but often suffer from limited reconfigurability, irreversible control, or high hardware costs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel reversible and reconfigurable optical PUF (2RO-PUF) system.
• To address the limitations of existing reconfigurable PUF technologies.
• To enhance cryptographic security and flexibility in network security applications.

Main Methods:

• Utilized two-beam manipulation of photothermal-sensitive scatterers.
• Engineered a precisely controllable phase transition for scatterer manipulation.
• Developed a novel Internet of Things (IoT) framework integrating the 2RO-PUFs.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated deterministic and repeatable reconfigurability of programmed scatters and speckle patterns.
• Verified the cryptographic robustness of the 2RO-PUFs.
• Showcased enhanced security and flexibility in an IoT framework with reduced overhead.

Conclusions:

• The 2RO-PUFs provide a secure, flexible, and efficient solution for network security.
• Optically controlled speckle formation in PUFs significantly boosts cryptographic capabilities.
• This technology alleviates storage and computational demands in security applications.