NOtES: Ultra-Secure Cash Inspired by Butterflies

The beauty of nature has inspired the creation of various materials, but this one might be one of the most beautiful. Using arrays of holes no bigger than a virus, scientists at Toronto-based Nanotech Security have created an atoms-thick display that can be read by humans or machines and that shines with the brightness of a LED using nothing but reflected light. 

The inventors of the NOtES technology, Clint Landrock and Bozena Kaminska at Simon Fraser University, stumbled into the potential security applications while trying to find a way to increase the efficiency of solar cells. The technology was inspired by the Blue Morpho butterfly, whose brilliant blue coloration comes not from pigment but the way that tiny holes in its scales reflect light. The technology, called Nano-Optic Technology for Enhanced Security (NOtES), is extremely thin and functions even in dim light. NOtES exploits an area in physics known as plasmonics. 

Light waves interact with the array of nano-scale holes on a NOtES display (100-200 nanometers in diameter) creating "surface plasmons." Light "[collects] on the films surface and creates higher than expected optical outputs by creating an electromagnetic field, called surface plasmonic resonance." Soon, the world's supply of cash might be secured with a nano-scale optical defense as beautiful as its technology.
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Notes: Ultra-Secure Cash Inspired by Butterflies

Nanotech Security Corp. is a Canadian company that designs and sells security devices. Their products include security threads for bank notes and high value documents, communication surveillance and intelligence gathering equipment for the International Defense and Lax Enforcement markets.