Edible optical microcavities for optical barcoding, authentication, and sensing
Abdur Rehman Anwar, Slavko Kralj, Matjaž Humar · 2026
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Description
Abdur Rehman Anwar, Slavko Kralj, and Matjaž Humar present a 2026 paper on tiny edible spheres that act as optical barcodes inside food and medicine. Counterfeiting threatens both industries, and labels on packaging can be swapped. Their spheres, silica beads coated with chlorophyll, trap light in circulating modes that resonate at wavelengths set by the bead's exact size. Sizes could be read to within about forty nanometers.
Embedded in a gel, the beads produced stable spectral signatures for at least six months, each unique enough to serve as an unclonable fingerprint. The same beads sensed sugar levels with small error and acidity within a third of a pH unit when set in a responsive gel. The authors present the beads as safe-to-eat tags that authenticate and sense at once.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Abdur Rehman Anwar, Slavko Kralj, Matjaž Humar |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 59 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |