Robust Optical Data Encryption by Projection-Photoaligned Polymer-Stabilized-Liquid-Crystals

The emerging Internet of Things (IoTs) invokes increasing security demands that require robust encryption or anti-counterfeiting technologies. Albeit being acknowledged as efficacious solutions in processing elaborate graphical information via multiple degrees of freedom, optical data encryption and anti-counterfeiting techniques are typically inept in delivering satisfactory performance without compromising the desired ease-of-processibility or compatibility, thus leading to the exploration of novel materials and devices that are competent. Here, a robust optical data encryption technique is demonstrated utilizing polymer-stabilized-liquid-crystals (PSLCs) combined with projection photoalignment and photopatterning methods. The PSLCs possess implicit optical patterns encoded via photoalignment, as well as explicit geometries produced via photopatterning. Furthermore, the PSLCs demonstrate improved robustness against harsh chemical environments and thermal stability and can be directly deployed onto various rigid and flexible substrates. Based on this, it is demonstrated that a single PSLC is apt to carry intricate information or serve as an exclusive watermark with both implicit features and explicit geometries. Moreover, a novel, generalized design strategy is developed, for the first time, to encode intricate and exclusive information with enhanced security by spatially programming the photoalignment patterns of a pair of cascade PSLCs, which further illustrates the promising capabilities of PSLCs in optical data encryption and anti-counterfeiting.