Fluorescent Molecular Photoswitches for the Generation of All-Optical Encryption Keys

Journal article, 2023

Herein, we report a tri-component photochromic molecular cocktail that can be used to encrypt and decrypt information. The time-dependent fluorescent response of this cocktail is highly non-linear with respect to the set of inputs used (concentrations of the three photochromic components, excitation- and emission wavelengths), a property required for the generation of so-called encryption keys. The all-optical system can generate more than 80 million unique fluorescence responses by applying different input combinations and is operated using a conventional fluorimeter.