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Mimicking the colourful wing scale structure of the Papilio blumei butterfly

Nature Nanotechnology volume 5, pages 511–515 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

The brightest and most vivid colours in nature arise from the interaction of light with surfaces that exhibit periodic structure on the micro- and nanoscale. In the wings of butterflies, for example, a combination of multilayer interference, optical gratings, photonic crystals and other optical structures gives rise to complex colour mixing. Although the physics of structural colours is well understood, it remains a challenge to create artificial replicas of natural photonic structures1,2,3. Here we use a combination of layer deposition techniques, including colloidal self-assembly, sputtering and atomic layer deposition, to fabricate photonic structures that mimic the colour mixing effect found on the wings of the Indonesian butterfly Papilio blumei. We also show that a conceptual variation to the natural structure leads to enhanced optical properties. Our approach offers improved efficiency, versatility and scalability compared with previous approaches4,5,6.

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Figure 1: Natural photonic structure.
Figure 2: Sample fabrication.
Figure 3: An artificial optical mimic.
Figure 4: Modified mimic with enhanced optical performance.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge financial support from the EPSRC (EP/G060649/1, EP/E040241, EP/C511786/1). M.K. acknowledges support from DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) and the Cambridge Newton Trust.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB3 0HE, UK

    Mathias Kolle, Pedro M. Salgard-Cunha, Maik R. J. Scherer, Fumin Huang, Sumeet Mahajan, Jeremy J. Baumberg & Ullrich Steiner

  2. Nanoscience Centre, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB3 0FF, UK

    Mathias Kolle

  3. School of Physics, University of Exeter, Stocker Road, Exeter, EX4 4QL, UK

    Pete Vukusic

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  1. Mathias Kolle
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  8. Ullrich Steiner
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Contributions

P.V. and M.K. performed the studies of the natural photonic structure. M.K., M.S., P.S. and U.S. conceived and designed the artificial mimics. M.S. provided the colloidal templates. P.S. and S.M. performed the electro-deposition. P.S. produced the photolithographic resist pattern for the modified mimic. M.K. and P.S. realized the atomic layer deposition. M.K. characterized the optical performance and the topology of the samples. F.H. and J.B. provided the algorithms necessary to perform the optical measurements and to create the spectral maps. M.K., J.B., U.S. and P.V. analysed the data. M.K., U.S. and J.B. wrote the paper. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jeremy J. Baumberg or Ullrich Steiner.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Kolle, M., Salgard-Cunha, P., Scherer, M. et al. Mimicking the colourful wing scale structure of the Papilio blumei butterfly. Nature Nanotech 5, 511–515 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2010.101

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