Issue 7, 2020

Optical microresonator arrays of fluorescence-switchable diarylethenes with unreplicable spectral fingerprints

Abstract

High-security identification requires authentication that is hard to counterfeit and replicate. For anti-counterfeiting data storage and rewritable memory devices, chromic materials are adoptable, where the dichromatic colours can be switched by external stimuli. If further individual information is embedded in each pixel, a much higher-level security system beyond the zero/one data array will be realized. For this purpose, a fine whispering gallery mode (WGM) fingerprint pattern from a microresonator is applicable. Here we propose that photoswitchable optical microresonators made of a fluorescent photochromic organic material function as anti-counterfeiting, rewritable optical memories. The WGM photoluminescence of the resultant microspheres can be switched on and off repeatedly by irradiation with ultraviolet and visible light. The shape of the microresonator varies from a sphere to an oblate ellipsoid and hemisphere, depending on the self-assembly process, and the WGM spectral pattern depends sensitively on the morphology of the resonators. Furthermore, surface self-assembly on a hydrophobic/hydrophilic micropatterned substrate affords a highly integrated array of microresonators as dense as millions of pixels per square centimetre. The spectral fingerprints of all pixels are different from one another; therefore, the photoswitchable microarrays are applicable as an ultimate anti-counterfeiting system which is hard to replicate.

Graphical abstract: Optical microresonator arrays of fluorescence-switchable diarylethenes with unreplicable spectral fingerprints

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
05 4月 2020
Accepted
06 5月 2020
First published
06 5月 2020
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Mater. Horiz., 2020,7, 1801-1808

Optical microresonator arrays of fluorescence-switchable diarylethenes with unreplicable spectral fingerprints

D. Okada, Z. Lin, J. Huang, O. Oki, M. Morimoto, X. Liu, T. Minari, S. Ishii, T. Nagao, M. Irie and Y. Yamamoto, Mater. Horiz., 2020, 7, 1801 DOI: 10.1039/D0MH00566E

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements