Conformal assembly of plasmonic gratings on electrospun nanofiber membranes for holographic physical unclonable functions

Physical unclonable functions (PUFs) have gained widespread adoption for secure authentication, yet existing systems often face challenges related to cost, complexity, and scalability. This study introduces a novel holographic physical unclonable function (HPUF) based on electrospun nanofiber membranes (ESNFs), which integrates plasmonic gratings with the inherent randomness and robustness of ESNFs. Efficient conformal printing of gratings onto ESNF membranes was achieved by combining the rapid self-assembly of silver nanocubes with microstructured transfer printing. The HPUF system demonstrated high diffraction efficiency (up to 37 %) and exceptional key space security, with a key size of approximately 2 384 . The generated HPUF patterns passed 13 NIST randomness tests without post-processing, confirming their suitability for cryptographic applications. Furthermore, the HPUF exhibited excellent stability, with high reproducibility across 40 challenge-response cycles. This work presents a high-efficiency, scalable, and visually distinctive solution for secure anti-counterfeiting and cryptographic applications, with potential for integration into various materials.