title: Nanotag luminescent fingerprint anti-counterfeiting technology.
abstract: We describe a method to fabricate, transfer and validate via image processing nanofibre-based, unique security marks ('nanotags') for anti-counterfeiting purposes. Epitaxial surface growth of oligophenylenes on a heated muscovite mica crystal results in a thin film of mutually aligned nanofibres with dimensions of tens of nanometres in height, hundreds of nanometres in width and tens to hundreds of micrometres in length. By applying a shadow mask, a film pattern is generated which contains only sparse, randomly grown nanofibres, which in turn represent a unique 'fingerprint' of the growth area. This fingerprint can be transferred on an adhesive tape as a label of a product, imaged using low magnification microscopy, digitalised and stored in a database. Infrared surface heating, enforced cooling and load lock transfer makes the fabrication process fast and scalable to mass production.
authors.affiliation: Nano SYD, Mads Clausen Institute, University of Southern Denmark, Alsion 2, Sønderborg, DK6400, Denmark. radziwon@mci.sdu.dk.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Johansen
authors.forename: Michal
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Radziwon
authors.forename: Luciana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tavares
authors.forename: Horst-Günter
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Rubahn