An electrically responsive hyper-reflective PSCLC with highly tunable transmittance for dynamic information encryption and advanced infrared anti-counterfeiting

Infrared-responsive anti-counterfeiting technologies remain underexplored, yet their inherent invisibility and compatibility with machine-based authentication make them highly attractive for next-generation high-security applications. Current infrared anti-counterfeiting strategies frequently suffer from fixed pattern formats, low encoding complexity, and a lack of dynamic tunability, limiting their suitability for advanced encryption scenarios. Here, a highly tunable-transmittance-range bilayer hyper-reflective polymer-stabilized cholesteric liquid crystal (PSCLC) film device that supports reconfigurable infrared pattern switching is reported. By tailoring the concentrations of the reactive mesogen RM257 and the tetra-thiol cross-linker pentaerythritol tetrakis(3-mercaptopropionate) within a cholesteric host exhibiting infrared-selective reflection, precise voltage-controlled texture transitions have been achieved. Inserting a 1.9 μm polyethylene terephthalate interlayer yields a bilayer architecture with opposite helicities, enabling simultaneous reflection of left- and right-circularly polarized light and a peak reflectance of approximately 90 %. The device exhibits robust AC-driven switching behavior with a transmittance contrast of approximately 80 % between planar and homeotropic states. When integrated with laser-etched electrode designs, the device supports wavelength-selective infrared patterns that can be dynamically encoded and erased under a single operating wavelength, representing the first demonstration of actively switchable infrared information encryption and anti-counterfeiting in PSCLC systems to date.