DIAMONDS and valuable works of art could be protected against theft using a microscopic barcode that stores encrypted information about the provenance of the items, making ownership easy to prove if they are stolen.
The barcode, which takes the form of a cube 30 micrometres across, is being developed by a team at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) at Teddington, near London. The cube is made of silicon coated with a 100-nanometre-thick layer of polymethyl methacrylate, a transparent plastic. It can be attached to hard surfaces using adhesive, or woven into the canvas of paintings.
To create the barcode an…
