Plastic foils tagged posts

Invisible Tags: Physicists Write, Read and Erase using Light

A luminescent tag, contactless printed onto a plastic foil. The light emitting layer is thinner than a human hair. The imprint can be erased and replaced by another pattern.
Credit: M. Gmelch and H. Thomas, TU Dresden

A team of physicists has developed a new method of storing information in fully transparent plastic foils. Prof. Reineke and his LEXOS team work with simple plastic foils with a thickness of less than 50 micrometer, which is thinner than a human hair. In these transparent plastic foils, they introduce organic luminescent molecules. In the beginning, these molecules are in an inactive, dark state. By locally using ultraviolet irradiation, it is possible to turn this dark state into an active, luminescent one...

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