The demand for high-security document features has driven research into optical technologies capable of producing effects that are both visually striking and extremely difficult to counterfeit.

A new advance in optoelectronics from the University of St Andrews could accelerate the arrival of holographic technology in consumer devices, including smartphones, wearables, and entertainment platforms.

According to researchers at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, polarisation is key for future technologies, ranging from quantum computers to secure communication and holographic displays.

UV resin is the preferred material for hologram casting because of its high precision, fast curing, and excellent optical properties. Here’s why UV resin is widely used in security holograms, diffractive optical elements (DOEs), and high-resolution embossing applications.

Photonic crystals (PCs) are optical nanostructures that affect the propagation of light by the periodic variation in their refractive index. As counterfeiting techniques become ever more sophisticated, PCs offer physically unclonable functions (PUFs) due to their defect-sensitive optical behaviour and structural colours that cannot be reproduced accurately by traditional printing or scanning techniques.

New technology from US-based startup SMS, called ‘Nanocoining’, is helping to bring nano- and microscale patterns to the industrial scale. The technology creates seamless cylindrical drum moulds for roll-to-roll nanoimprint processes with a patterning rate of up to 2 square inches (2,500mm2) per second – more than 500 times faster than typical electron-beam tools.

In the January and February 2025 issues of Holography & Optical Technology News™, we covered banknotes featuring optical innovations from Argentina, Mauritius, Romania, Kazakhstan, the Philippines, Kenya, China, the Falklands, and Belize.

Researchers from EPFL’s Laboratory of Applied Photonic Devices, led by Christophe Moser, in collaboration with Jesper Glückstad’s team at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU), have revealed a breakthrough in 3D printing.

At the recent High Security Printing™ (HSP) EMEA conference in Basel (3-5 February), Georgios Tziovaras, Global Business Development Manager at Covestro Specialty Films, highlighted the crucial role of holography and advanced optical technologies in modern identity documents.

Honeywell has unveiled the development of a new technology, Digital Holographic Microscopy (DHM), which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to count and classify microscopic particles or cells efficiently. This innovation holds significant potential across various industries where rapid analysis and streamlined operations are essential.