All-Optical Reconfigurable Physical Unclonable Function for Sustainable Security

As security threats continue to evolve, static physical unclonable function (PUF) systems are facing inherent limitations in their security sustainability. This growing demand for sustainable security is driving a paradigm shift toward dynamic and reconfigurable PUF systems. However, previous approaches relying on thermal treatments to reconstruct physical entities can be limited in practicality due to concerns over thermal stability and scalability. Here, we present an all-optical reconfigurable PUF that fills this unmet need through non-invasive and scalable optical techniques. To demonstrate this, we introduce a nanopatterning method that employs plasmonic coupling-induced sintering of optically trapped gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) to fabricate optical PUFs. The resulting PUFs, which leverage complex spatiospectral information, deliver practically sufficient security, outstanding encoding density, and robust resistance against machine learning-based modeling attacks. Furthermore, we validate the applicability of the proposed PUF system for anti-counterfeiting and traceability applications by implementing a lightweight authentication protocol that exhibits reliable performance. Lastly, we demonstrate that irreversible and on-demand reconfiguration through optothermal nudging of patterned AuNPs enables repeated generation of unpredictable and independent responses while maintaining consistent security. These demonstrations signify the potential of our all-optical approach as a promising pathway toward achieving sustainable hardware-based security.