Plasma implants protect against counterfeit goods

The technology, used to create plasma that is implanted into the glass, generates individual patterns on the surface of the bottle.

These could be used to identify individual bottles or batches of alcoholic beverages, pharmaceuticals or perfumes, according to its developer Dr Matthew Murray, a research fellow in the School of Chemical and Process Engineering at Leeds University.

“Our aim is to create a security measure that is in place right from the moment that the glass comes out of the furnace, up to the point that it goes into a customer’s home,” said Murray, who was recently awarded the Royal Academy of Engineering ERA Foundation Entrepreneurs’ Award for the technology, known as Alpin.

To create the patterns, the system uses a femtosecond laser, which creates a series of very short light pulses. When these pulses, which contain large amounts of energy, are focused onto a target material, it converts it into plasma in an ablative process, said Murray. “Because of the tremendous amounts of energy involved, it causes [this plasma] to explode off the surface at high velocity, in what looks like an aerosol spray.”