Nonvolatile Optically Reconfigurable Radiative Metasurface with Visible Tunability for Anticounterfeiting

Control of thermal emission underpins fundamental science, as it is related to both heat and infrared electromagnetic wave transport. However, realizing nonvolatile reconfigurable thermal emission is challenging due to the inherent complexity or limitation in conventional radiative materials or structures. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a nonvolatile optically reconfigurable mid-infrared coding radiative metasurface. By applying laser pulses, infrared emissive patterns are directly encoded into an ultrathin (∼25 nm) Ge₂Sb₂Te₅ layer integrated into a planar optical cavity with the optically crystallized Ge₂Sb₂Te₅ spots, and the peak spectral emissivity is repeatedly switched between low (∼0.1) and high (∼0.7) values. In addition, the visible scattering patterns are independently modulated with submicron-sized bumps generated by high-power laser pulses. An anticounterfeiting label is demonstrated with spatially different infrared emission and visible light scattering information encoded. This approach constitutes a new route toward thermal emission control and has broad applications in encryption, camouflage, and so on.