Chaos-based scalable optoelectronic physical unclonable functions with AI-driven dynamic authentication

The growing reliance on cloud services and Internet of Thing (IoT) ecosystems demands scalable, real-time authentication for dynamic multi-user and multi-device environments. Conventional static key management systems, constrained by inflexibility and vulnerabilities, fail to meet these requirements. Herein, we present a chaos-based Physical unclonable function (PUF) security system using chaotic vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) as key generation sources, achieving ultrafast response rates (>300 Gbps) and exceptional energy consumption below 1 pJ/bit per emitter. To ensure authentication framework is compatible with this response rate, we developed a compact convolutional neural network (CNN) model that demonstrates dynamic key matching, achieving near-zero false positive rates. To further enhance system security, an adversarial generative framework is implemented to protect key transmission while enhancing the authentication model’s resilience against model inversion attacks. Furthermore, we propose a pluggable, 3D co-packaged PUF hardware design, offering a compact footprint for flexible deployment while maintaining an estimated energy consumption as low as 3.49 pJ/bit. Our solution establishes a robust foundation for scalable, low-latency key distribution and dynamic authentication, addressing the evolving security demands of modern user-intensive/device-dense digital service networks.