Hologram Industries (HI) announced the launch of its latest holographic innovation – called DID Wave™ – at the High Security Printing™ Conference in Lima in June.

This latest innovation by HI builds on the DID® (Diffractive Identification Device) product family comprising zero order diffraction devices. Since 2003, the product family has evolved to include: DID® Optoseal™ to protect data on paper documents, DID Note™ and DID Contour™ for banknote authentication, DID Inlay™ for polycarbonate cards and recent concepts, DID Full, DID Shape and DID Twin that increase the diffractive optical variable image device’s role in personal data protection of polycarbonate documents.

HI have developed a new novel path in the DID innovation road map that combines DID nanostructures with ultra-thin reflective Fresnel micro-optics.

Using zero order nano-gratings technology and ‘mapping’ them onto the ultra-thin Fresnel type lenses allows HI to add animation / motion and / or virtual surface relief 3D effects with the DID colour permutation.

Hologram Industries Unveils DID Wave

www.holography-news.com

VOLUME 29 – NO 8 / AUGUST 2015

Continued on page 2 >

An example of DID Wave Stripe.

Idvac Develops 2-Colour Copper MetallisationIdvac, the UK-based specialist vacuum metallising developer and consultancy, has developed a new innovative process that deposits two distinct colours of copper metalisation onto embossed and unembossed films.

Idvac specialises in the development of advanced metallising processes for holographic, packaging and other niche markets. Over the past 11 years, it has been successful in developing and introducing new vacuum processes and technologies, including high refractive index materials (HRI), copper, chrome alloy, dry gold colour finish, colour shift and other processes to the security and packaging markets. In May 2015, Holography News® reported on the development of the new generation of advanced narrow web vacuum coaters (MiniMet 300).

Typically, holograms are metallised fully or partially with aluminium or copper, as a reflection-enhancing layer, or coated with HRI materials such as zinc sulphide to provide a semi-transparent effect.

In this new innovation, copper can have two distinct colours (standard and rosy) on a film without the use of any inks, dyes or wet coatings. The copper deposition process is dry and carried out in vacuum. When combined with partial de-metallisation, it provides two distinct copper colours for images, logos, text and alphanumerics.

Continued on page 2 >

DID Wave patch and windowed thread.

TruLife Optics

The new process can be used for both laminated and hot stamping holograms.

The process provides a different approach to bi-metallic coatings since – instead of using combinations of aluminium, copper or zinc sulphide to achieve a bi-metallic effect – only copper is used to produce two colours.

The other interesting feature of this new development is that the two colour metallised copper layers can have different electrical and thermal conductivities, which may be developed for future authentication and new electro-thermal element applications.

www.idvac.co.uk

Separate copper metallised films exhibiting the standard copper colour and rosy copper colour.

The new DID optical products are called DID Wave that incorporates the colour permutation and animation motion effects, and DID® Virtual that incorporates colour permutation and surface relief 3D effects.

Some of the key advantages of the DID Wave feature are its exception brightness, resistance to counterfeiting, ease of authentication by the public, and ease of integration into the secure document.

For example, in banknotes the DID Wave thread can be integrated and linked to the design of a DID Wave patch in the

same document, creating a unique colour permutation between the patch and the thread. DID Wave is designed for thread, patch and stripe formats.

DID Virtual is available for banknotes in either patch or stripe formats. The product brings an instinctive and eye catching additional security feature to the market that is easy to authenticate and explain without visual complexity, whilst being virtually impossible to counterfeit.

www.hologram-industries.com

2 HOLOGRAPHY NEWS | IN THE NEWS

Inside this Issue1 Hologram Industries

Unveils DID Wave

1 Idvac Develops 2-Colour Copper Metallisation

3 TruLife Optics Launches New Holographic Waveguide

3 Graphene Produces a Working 3D Display

4 Security Foiling

6 Holoptica Launches holoNFC

7 Professor Parameswaran Hariharan

7 From the Archives

8 Nanoholes Could be Used to Produce Holograms

DID Wave (Continued)

Idvac Develops (Continued)

Single copper metallised films exhibiting both standard copper colour and rosy copper colour.

An example of Virtual DID showing colour permutation effects combined with an embossing effect for ‘93’ to create virtual volume in the design.

DID Note on the Philippines Piso 500.

A pictorial representation of DID mapped onto ultra-thin micro lenses.

1 to 10µ

400nm

60nm

150nm

Standard Copper

Rosy Copper

Rosy Copper

Copper

TruLife Optics

3TECHNOLOGY NEWS | VOLUME 29 – NO 8 | AUGUST 2015

Graphene Produces a Working 3D Holographic DisplayHolographic displays featuring three-dimensional images, using graphene based materials, are moving closer to fruition, according to researchers at Swinburne University of Technology, Australia.

In the journal Nature Communcations, the Australian team, in collaboration with Beijing Institute of Technology and Tsinghua University – also based in Beijing, China – reports on using graphene oxide (a form of graphene mixed with oxygen) together with the use of a single femtosecond (10-15 sec) pulsed laser beam to create a 3D holographic display.

Graphene was first isolated in the laboratory over a decade ago. It is an allotrope of carbon – which along with diamond, graphite and Buckminster fullerene are all pure forms of carbon with the atoms bonded together in different structures. Graphene is also a single layer thick and hence is one of the thinnest, lightest and strongest materials known to man. It is also an excellent conductor of electricity and heat and has some unique optical properties.

The researchers report that they have created a high-definition 3D holographic

display up to 1cm in size with a wide viewing angle of up to 52°, based on a digital holographic screen composed of small pixels that bend light.

To achieve this, graphene oxide is exposed to a femtosecond pulsed laser. The process is complex but the key physical step is to control the heating of the material during the photoreduction process.

This process changes the refractive index of the graphene oxide and creates nanometre scale pixels that are capable of bending light to produce a holographic image. The smaller the pixel, the better the viewing angle of the resulting hologram that is created when light is bent by passing through the pixel.

Photoreduced graphene-oxide based displays could theoretically be produced easily and in scale, as the process does not require hazardous solvents or post-processing.

According to Qin Li from Griffith University’s School of Engineering, ‘the use of graphene also relieves pressure on the world’s dwindling supplies of indium, the metallic element that has been commonly used for electronic devices. Other technologies are being developed in this area, but

photoreduced graphene oxide looks by far the most promising and most practical’.

The team hope this technology could one day revolutionise displays – with the most obvious implications being in mobile and wearable technologies. It could also be used for holographic anti-counterfeit tags, security labels, and personal identification.

For further information see Li, X. et al. Athermally photoreduced graphene oxides for three-dimensional holographic images. Nat. Commun. 6:6984 doi: 10.1038/ncomms7984 (2015).

TruLife Optics Launches New Holographic Waveguide for Augmented Reality DevicesTruLife Optics, founded in 2014 and the wholly owned subsidiary of Colour Holographic, has launched TL1 – a holographic waveguide for the wearable augmented reality (AR) industry.

TruLife Optics was founded to introduce ground breaking holographic optical technology for head-up display and augmented reality devices.

The company’s patented technology, developed in partnership with the UK’s National Physical Laboratory (NPL), is used to project high resolution, full colour images and video into the human eye through ultra-thin optics that can be incorporated into wearable devices.

The TL1 optic incorporates two holograms. The first collects the display image. That image is then turned by the hologram and then sent along a thin piece of glass or plastic (a waveguide) to a second hologram. The image is then turned again at about 90° through the second hologram within the optic so that the light is projected into the eye of the user.

The new product offers several unique advantages for developers of AR devices. For example, images can be displayed in high definition, full colour, in perfect focus and in 3D through the centre of a field of vision. Critically, the image is transparent, allowing for the perfect overlay of information on whatever subject is being viewed.

The optic itself is lightweight, less than 2mm thick, and can be easily mass-produced for consumer and industrial applications.

Jonathan Lewis, Chief Executive of TruLife Optics, said ‘the development of wearable AR devices has been curtailed by the lack of an optical component that allows for the genuine overlay of high-definition, full colour and transparent images over the field of vision.Today, with the launch of our first commercially available optic, we provide that missing piece in the augmented reality jigsaw puzzle.’

TruLife Optics will work alongside developers of augmented reality devices to provide customised, bespoke solutions based on its patented technology.

www.trulifeoptics.com

The 3D hologram 1cm in size. © Xiangping Li

A benchtop prototype of TruLife’s new optic.

TruLife Optics

4 HOLOGRAPHY NEWS | COMPANY PROFILE

Security Foiling – Holograms Applied at the Point of IssueSecurity Foiling (SF), headquartered in Ipswich, UK, has established itself as a leading independent provider of foil and hologram solutions for document security to a wide spectrum of industries, including financial, printing, transport, government, education and multinational organisations. To date SF’s foil and hologram solutions are in numerous installations across 94 countries.

The main offering of the business are products (foil application equipment, dies and holographic foils) and services that provide security document producers and issuers with the flexibility and configurability to apply the security hologram at the point of issue. This is vital in applications where documents need to be issued from distribution or regional centres, and thereby reduces the risks of transporting and storing finished unpersonalised secure documents.

All of SF’s products are designed and built in the UK by a team of specialist engineers and designers.

Company historySecurity Foiling was founded in July 1991 as the security division of the Blockfoil group that has been involved in hot foiling and commercial packaging since 1981.

In 2004 Blockfoil was acquired by Barry Corbett (current Group Managing Director) and Peter Starling (current Finance Director) from Bridgepoint, a venture capitalist. The company has facilities in Manchester and Nottingham as well as Ipswich.

The Blockfoil group includes:

SF Services, which started in 1989, and is Blockfoil’s specialist international sales and aftersales support arm for new and used hot stamping equipment, cutting, creasing and folder gluing machines.

Profoil (Profoil System Limited), which was set up to trade consumables to other foiling and embossing organisations. Its first products were die fixing toggles and machine spare parts, but over recent years has expanded into hot stamping foil rolls, make-ready materials and many other key consumables.

In addition, Blockfoil has its own in-house die making facility (Dies Direct) that makes brass, magnesium and copper dies and also dies for applying holograms.

Products and marketsSF is able to supply everything needed to provide a finished solution, from hologram design and supply, to providing all of the equipment and consumables (including

dies) needed to apply the hologram to a security document or plastic card at the point of issue.

MicroPOISE™ (POISE standing for Point of Issue Security Embosser) is the company’s ‘on-demand’ hologram application machine. (The machine is also known as Checkpoint and Securogram). All machines are designed and manufactured in-house.

MicroPOISE hologram application hand fed machine.

MicroPOISE hologram application vacuum fed machine.

The basic MicroPOISE (MP) machine is desk-top size, with a family of feeder options (ie. hand feed, auto feed, vacuum feed and sprocket feed) depending on production volume requirements and document types. All machines are designed to be secure and tamper proof, to enable hologram applications to secure document substrates in remote locations by unskilled users.

The equipment can be made bespoke to customer requirements and can also be integrated with third party equipment such as feeding systems, laser marking, lamination and converting equipment.

So how does the MicroPOISE machine work?The basic MP machine consists of a heated stamping head, a patented anti-jam impression system, a foil transport system, and a control system. The die is mounted securely onto the stamping head. The foil is routed underneath the stamping die; the substrate is then placed above a pressure absorbing element known as the make-ready.

Once in position, the substrate and foil are pressed together against the fixed hot die by applying pressure to the underside of the substrate, with the combination of pressure and heat permanently bonding the foil to the substrate. A foil separation system ensures the foil and substrate are reliably separated after the impression takes place – improving the quality of impression and promoting reliable automatic feeding of documents and cards.

MicroPOISE hologram application.

The machines are very robust and can handle many types of substrate materials, including paper, composite plastic card, Teslin, PET, polycarbonate and polypropylene. Maximum substrate thickness is 5mm. Machines are designed to resist accidental or deliberate jamming by stacking multiple substrates.

Foil is supplied on a continuous roll which is pulled through the machine and accurately positioned between the die and the make-ready by the transport system. A fixed knife separates the waste foil and the substrate after each stamping strike and the waste foil is then wound onto a roller. The control system ensures that the correct levels of heat and pressure are applied and that the foil is correctly positioned for each impression.

The machine is fitted with a fibre optic sensor that accurately reads the position of the hologram register marks. The machine uses this information to precisely control the foil transport mechanism, stopping the foil in the exact position required for correct hologram stamping.

TruLife Optics

5COMPANY PROFILE | VOLUME 29 – NO 8 | AUGUST 2015

Quality of the impression and transfer depends on three parameters – temperature, pressure and dwell (or contact time between foil and substrate). Typical transfer would take place at 120°C and pressure and dwell is adjusted to suit the properties of the substrate. Once the settings are correct then the machine stores these settings and provides high quality impressions time after time. The machines can apply continuous image holograms, registered images, conventional hot stamping foils and signature panels, the latter on plastic cards.

Typical throughput speeds vary depending on the exact application requirements but, for the basic hand fed machine, 500 impressions an hour is achievable. Further speed improvements are possible using the auto-card feeder and vacuum feeder with speeds of 3,500 and 4,500 impressions respectively. 8,000 impressions an hour are possible with a full audit system machine.

Protecting the foiling processIn response to customer demands to protect the MP foiling process, SF developed the SENTRY system. This offers control over how and when the MP machine can be used and provides a complete audit trail of machine use and operation. Sentry codes are issued that allow a specific number of impression credits. This prevents the MP machine from being used to produce additional documents.

A further enhancement has now been developed that enables the system to interface to a computer (SENTRY Access PC Interface). This allows all operational parameters to be saved, recalled and uploaded to the MP machine in just a few seconds, allowing rapid changeover of jobs.

MicroPOISE SENTRY Access PC Interface.

Up until now over 2,000 MP machines have been sold, including for the following:

To produce 32 million Argentinian ID cards;

To the Benin government to authenticate documents from the President’s office, senior ministers, Customs and the Treasury.

To produce visitor ID badges for President Obama’s inauguration event.

Security foilsAs well as supplying MP machines, SF also supplies security holograms that includes its own Duogram® and Datafoil™ products.

Duogram is unique to SF and is a combination of die technology and holographic foil. The product is used to protect plastic cards from being forged and gives instant verification via an optical switch with the word ‘OK’ repeated for authentication.

Examples of Duogram.

The product is available in gold and silver colours and can contain a variety of both overt and covert security features, including moving dot patterns, multiple viewing angles, variable depth, fine line detail, microtext, nanotext, image flips, hidden information revealed with a reader, deliberate errors and tactility. Further customisation is also possible by the addition of serialisation.

Duogram is unique in that some of the secure images and features, such as microtext, are ‘built into’ the stamping dies and transferred to the foil at the point of issue of the plastic card during the stamping process using the MP machine. This combination of custom die and secure Duogram foil has the advantage of lowering costs and lead times, particularly where volumes are low.

Artwork for the security stamping die imagery and text is supplied and approved by the customer. SF then manufactures the security dies using proprietary processes. The die materials and unique process used depend upon complexity of the design.

An example of Duogram’s use is at London Heathrow airport. The product was used to secure 40,000 airside driving permits that were applied using the MP machine with an auto-card feeder.

Further examples include the Kenyan State Press that uses Duogram for over 1million vehicle registration documents, and the Presidential office of Benin that use the product to secure official documents.

DatafoilDatafoil, meanwhile, is a proven high security transparent high refractive index coated foil that protects variable information from being altered. Its main application is protecting data on certificates and cheques against unauthorised alteration.

An example of Datafoil.

It has been sold in over 70 countries, including in the UK where it protects £200 billion of welfare payments and gun licence certificates.

As for Duogram, Datafoil can incorporate a variety of security features and uses a combination of security die and holographic foil technologies.

The high stamping pressure used in the application of Datafoil meshes the foil with the paper, making it virtually impossible to alter the information being protected without detection.

The future and other developmentsSF is seeing an increasing trend towards simple visual authentication, where the untrained eye has to make verification within a very short time. This has driven the development of holographic products that have simple optical switch features.

Other products that are increasingly being used is the new SF covert ‘through-view’ feature where text and threads can only be seen with rear illumination

Through-view feature back illuminated.

For national ID cards, a system has been produced that ties the digital credentials of the individual to the ID card. The machine reads a barcode on the substrate which then records the individual’s credentials applied to the card, whether the hologram has successfully transferred, when the document was produced and who the operator was who issued the card.

Work is in development with leading hologram suppliers to identify the specific hologram on a roll to confirm application to the card substrate.

More information can be found at www.securityfoiling.co.uk

TruLife Optics

6 HOLOGRAPHY NEWS | COMPANY NEWS

Holoptica Launches holoNFCHoloptica, the embossed hologram producer based in Silicon Valley, California has developed a new brand protection and authentication product – holoNFC™.

The company was set up in February 2012 by Jiri (George) Perkous (see HN April 2013) and is a spin off from (and shares part-ownership with) Segment Security, itself a company that only went into production in 2011 (see HN November 2011) for the production of micro-dots (holographic and non-holographic).

The Holoptica business is set up for hologram production and previously developed HoloQR™ (a diffractive or plain holographic QR code incorporated into the design of the hologram). Now the company has gone one step further with the development of holoNFC. As the word holoNFC suggests – it combines high security holography with Near Field Communication (NFC) technology.

HoloNFC: 13mm x 27mm label.

HoloNFC is a label product, 150 microns or more in thickness and can be either 100% full face holographic or a combination of paper or plastic with the NFC hologram. The smallest holoNFC device is 20mm diameter or 22mm x 12mm.

HoloNFC: 20mm diameter label.

The product has multiple layers of protection and authentication. The first three layers of protection are holographic visual, forensic and machine readable and can contain all possible holographic security elements and combinations thereof, including microtext, nanotext, kinetic effects, lens features, taggants, barcodes, HoloQR, ultra-violet fluorescing features, quantum dots and serial numbering.

The fourth layer of protection is a DNA SmartMark – an effective deterrent to counterfeiters made of synthetic DNA. The DNA SmartMark can be detected either in the field using a briefcase sized authentication kit, or where a smaller amount of DNA is used, detection is carried out in a laboratory. Combined with the holographic security layers, these four layers of protection are virtually impossible to copy.

The fifth and final layer is the NFC technology, which adds to the holoNFC an instant authentication, verification and track and trace mobile app capability. Instant verification is achieved by simply tapping the holoNFC hologram with any NFC enabled smartphone running Android, iOS or Windows.

First applications of holoNFC include anti-theft/track and trace asset marking with Crowd GPS capability. Crowd GPS enables items to be found after they have been lost. When another user comes nearby the lost item, that user’s phone will anonymously ping the server to update the owner of the item with new

GPS coordinates of when and where it was last seen.

Typically for low volumes (up to 2,000), indicative costs are $0.40 per holoNFC device.

One of the first applications of holoNFC is in the new SecureBike (SB) anti-theft and track and trace system provided in conjunction with Segment Security.

The SB system consists of a label incorporating 500 microscopic PIN coded microdots, holoNFC, patented HoloQR, UV marking pen applicator kit and Apple’s iBeacon with a Crowd GPS mobile app. When a person passes within range of the ‘tagged’ bike with a smartphone enabled Crowd GPS app, the location of the bike is updated on the bike owner’s mobile phone or tablet.

In addition to insurance companies supporting the SB system, Segment Security also highlights a number of other benefits to bike users of this technology including:

Anti-theft prevention (bikes are 70% less likely to be stolen);

60% higher rate of recovery via Crowd GPS;

Constant monitoring of your bike;

A payment of up to $300 if the bike is not recovered.

For further information see www.holoptica.com and www.segmentsecurity.com

Test screen shots of holoNFC.

TruLife Optics

Professor Parameswaran Hariharan – 1926-2015

Prof P Hariharan – renowned scientist, holographer and author, – passed away on 26 July, aged 89. Prof Hariharan was famous for the simplicity and originality of his

scientific approach to complex principles of both classical and modern optics.

During his lifetime he published over 200 papers and authored and contributed to books on holography and interferometry that are extensively referred to by the global holography fraternity and optics students.

He started his career in 1949 at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), New Delhi, where he stayed until 1951, before taking up a position at the National Research Council, Ottawa (1951-1954).

On returning to NPL he received his PhD for his work on photographic resolving power and subsequently became Director of the laboratories at Hindustan Photo Films, Ootacamund (1961-71) and Senior Professor at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore (1971-73). In 1973 he joined the Division of Applied Physics of Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in Sydney and retired as a Chief Research Scientist (1991). He continued his research as an Honorary Research Fellow at CSIRO and was an Honorary Visiting Professor at Sydney University where he was awarded the degree of DSc (2001).

He was also a Jawaharlal Nehru Professor of the Hyderabad Central University and a visiting scholar, sponsored by the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), at the Raman Research Institute, Bangalore (1996-98).

During his lifetime he developed multicolour rainbow holograms and enriched multicolour reflection holograms. His other contributions were in interferometry and related instrumentation.

He was the recipient of numerous prestigious awards over his career including: the Joseph Fraunhofer Medal of the Optical Society of America, the Thomas Young Medal of the Institute of Physics - London, the Dennis Gabor Award of SPIE, the Henderson Medal of the Royal Photographic Society, the Walter Boas Medal of the Australian Institute of Physics and Gold Medals of the Australian Optical Society and SPIE. He was a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, the Optical Society of America, SPIE, Institute of Physics-London, and the Royal Photographic Society.

His passing is not only a big loss to India, but to the whole global scientific and holographic

Compiled by Dr PT Ajith Kumar

Embossed Hologram In-Line Inspection SystemIn 2005 Holography News® reported Tecscan Electronics Ltd, a South Wales company specialising in the design and production of print inspection equipment, had developed two systems for in-line inspection and quality monitoring of embossed holograms in production. The AVIS H (Advanced Vision Inspection System – Hologram) was developed from the company’s AVIS print inspection system, which utilised an operator controlled inspection method, whilst the AVIS HPQ (print quality) was an automatic system.

AVIS required a high resolution (1392[h] x 1040[v] pixel) CCD digital colour imaging system to be installed on an embosser downstream of the shim roller and chiller unit. The camera unit used unique strobe technology to illuminate and capture up to three images per second, which were displayed on a TFT touch screen monitor. The standard area of view was 150mm x 112mm. The camera traversed the width of the web and cycled down the shim area so that all of the embossed area was imaged over several seconds. Different viewing areas were also available on request.

The more advanced HPQ allowed the operator to select an acceptable quality image, which was then stored as a reference image. The print defect detection software compared each image captured during production with this reference and alerted the operator with an audible and visual signal if the quality fell outside the parameters of the reference. Both systems detected defects such as shim degradation or other shim defects, dust or insect holes, cleaning smears and the like down to 10µ.

TecScan, which was founded in 1986 and rapidly built a good reputation for its print inspection systems, developed its holographic inspection system at the request of a UK producer. Development started in 1997 with the first system installed two years later. David Brideaux, technical sales manager, told Holography News that they had installed six AVIS H systems and three HPQ systems in Europe, Canada and China.

TecScan also offered its Web Ranger to monitor the pitch of holograms along the web. The Web Ranger reads the eyemark to ensure that the repeat distance stays accurate, or at least that variations are immediately noticed. It displays the pitch on a histogram to a tolerance accuracy of less than 0.1mm, saving down time and reducing waste. The price was around £8,000.

Today the AVIS/HPQ is still Tecscan’s flagship hologram system and is claimed to be the only defect detection system available designed specifically to inspect embossed hologram production.

7ARCHIVES | VOLUME 29 – NO 8 | AUGUST 2015

From the Archives10 years ago...

20 years ago...

Microsoft Stays with Holograms for Windows 95 Holography News® reported in 1995 that the August launch of the Windows 95 operating system, which was the most advertised and anticipated upgrade at the time, was to carry a new authentication hologram supplied by CFC Applied Holographics. The authentication hologram was a combined stereogram and dot-matrix hologram.

In keeping with the Microsoft theme of Information at your fingertips, the full colour holographic image portrayed a young boy seated in front of a computer monitor playing with the Windows 95 logo. On tilting the hologram on the horizontal axis the boy raised his right hand and touched the logo on the screen with his index finger; the screen image then dissolved into a swirling colour pattern.

The oval hologram was used on the Windows 95 box and the certificate of authenticity (COA) which also included a 3M security label. Christine Santucci, Microsoft spokesperson, told Holography News that Microsoft chose the image in part because replication would prove difficult for counterfeiters.

Today Microsoft still use holographic technology in some of their label COAs in the form of windowed holographic threads and a small oval holographic label placed inside an indentation on the Xbox.

In addition, many Microsoft products on CD and DVD also include holographic security features integrated into the discs to help protect them against counterfeiting.

TruLife Optics

8 HOLOGRAPHY NEWS | NANOHOLES

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or translated in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without the prior permission of the publishers. While every effort has been made to check the information given in this publication, the publishers cannot accept any responsibility for any loss or damage arising out of, or caused by the use of, such information. Opinions expressed in Holography News are those of the individual authors and not necessarily those of the publisher.

COPYRIGHT 2015. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Events12–15 OCTOBER 2015HOLOEXPO-2015Kazan City, Russiawww.holoexpo.ru

20–22 OCTOBER 2015SECURE DOCUMENT SUMMITBeijing, Chinawww.cids.com.cn

11–13 NOVEMBER 2015TAX STAMP FORUMMiami, USAwww.taxstampforum.com

17–19 NOVEMBER 2015CARTESParis, Francewww.cartes.com

02–04 DECEMBER 2015THE HOLOGRAPHY CONFERENCEShanghai, Chinawww.theholographyconference.com

Publisher: Reconnaissance International Ltd. Editor: Mark Deakes (right) Contributor: Astrid Mitchell

Annual subscription rate: £473 / €615 / $780

Subscribers to Authentication News, Tax Stamp News or ID & Secure Document News (20% discount): £378 / €492 / $624

Ask about multiple/corporate subscriptions and site licences.

The editorial team welcomes your news, contributions and comments. Please send these to info@reconnaissance-intl.com

4 Windmill Business Village, Brooklands Close, Sunbury, TW16 7DY, UK Tel: +44 (0)1932 785 680; Fax: +44 (0)1932 780 790

www.holography-news.com

Nanoholes Could be Used to Produce HologramsScientists at the National University of Singapore have found a way to potentially prevent counterfeits in currency, documents, credit cards, and even identity documents.

This latest technology is a high level security barrier to would-be street level counterfeiters, say its developers, which operates in the nanoscale range (on a scale of 10-9m).

The scientists designed an ‘ultra-capacity nano-photon sieve’ – a unique device with the capacity to incorporate more than 34,000 nanoholes (around 300nm in diameter) randomly distributed in its surface.

This feature enables the display of a high-pixel and high-quality holographic image at a controlled position.

According to Qiu Cheng-Wei, Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore, highly secured virtual information can be stored in the collection of the nanoholes. This can only be retrieved and read at a particular distance when a type of polarised illumination is employed.

He said ‘Our device can be customised for various applications as the dimensionality (for example, two-dimensional or three-dimensional), display distance, polarisation, and wavelength dependence can be tailored according to needs.’

The team’s new technology could open up a new area for security at nanoscale precision.

‘We are looking into making our system more robust, developing multiple holographic images at multiple displaying planes, wavelength-dependent, or

polarisation-dependent three-dimensional images, higher pixels, and other emerging applications enabled by the capability of handling such a huge quantity of nanoholes,’ says Qiu.

The findings appear in Nature Communications. Further information can be found at: Huang, K. et al. Ultrahigh-capacity non-periodic photon sieves operating in visible light. Nat. Commun. 6:7059 doi: 10.1038/ncomms8059 (2015).

Sketch of photon sieve hologram (149microns x 149 microns) with a target plane located 500 microns away from its surface. Insets: scanning electron microscope images of the left and right bottom of the photon sieve. Ultrahigh-capacity non-periodic photon sieves operating in visible light.

TruLife Optics