Journal
OPTICS EXPRESS
Volume 21, Issue 12, Pages 14351-14361Publisher
OPTICAL SOC AMER
DOI: 10.1364/OE.21.014351
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Funding
- Karlsruhe Nano Micro Facility (KNMF)
- Helmholtz Research Infrastructure at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
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Morpho butterflies are well-known for their iridescence originating from nanostructures in the scales of their wings. These optical active structures integrate three design principles leading to the wide angle reflection: alternating lamellae layers, Christmas tree like shape, and offsets between neighboring ridges. We study their individual effects rigorously by 2D FEM simulations of the nanostructures of the Morpho sulkowskyi butterfly and show how the reflection spectrum can be controlled by the design of the nanostructures. The width of the spectrum is broad (approximate to 90 nm) for alternating lamellae layers (or brunches) of the structure while the Christmas tree pattern together with a height offset between neighboring ridges reduces the directionality of the reflectance. Furthermore, we fabricated the simulated structures by e-beam lithography. The resulting samples mimicked all important optical features of the original Morpho butterfly scales and feature the intense blue iridescence with a wide angular range of reflection. (C) 2013 Optical Society of America
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