Bio-Inspired Design of Quasi-Ordered Structural Color via Stress-Driven Reconfiguration Enables Ultra-Secure and...

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Optics
• Cryptography

Background:

• Physically unclonable functions (PUFs) are crucial for next-generation authentication.
• Existing optical PUFs struggle to balance coding capacity, recognition speed, and manufacturing scalability.
• Thecla opisena wing scales exhibit quasi-ordered photonic structures offering design inspiration.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel optical PUF strategy overcoming the limitations of current systems.
• To create a stable, scalable, and secure authentication system inspired by natural structures.
• To achieve high coding capacity, rapid recognition, and robust manufacturing in a single PUF system.

Main Methods:

• A stress-driven microstructural reconfiguration strategy was employed, emulating natural photonic structure evolution.
• Heterogeneous polymer networks with poly(butyl acrylate) microspheres were imprinted to create random, structurally colored PUF patterns.
• Theoretical simulations analyzed stress fields and microsphere rearrangements to understand entropy and unclonability origins.

Main Results:

• Mechanically-induced structural color PUF labels (MSCPLs) demonstrated ultrahigh encoding capacity (2^480x480).
• Sub-2-second recognition with 99% accuracy was achieved using deep learning.
• The MSCPLs showed outstanding durability, retaining >85% pattern after 1000 bending cycles.
• Large-area fabrication (10x10 cm) with superior environmental resilience was demonstrated.

Conclusions:

• The bio-inspired methodology provides a robust and scalable platform for secure identification.
• This approach bridges structural color aesthetics with advanced physical cryptography for secure authentication.
• The developed PUF system is suitable for secure identification and Internet of Things applications.