Optical Functional Materials Inspired by Biology

The natural world exhibits numerous examples of efficient optical designs with novel hierarchical microstructures and specialized functionality after millions of years of evolution. Materials scientists have long been deriving understanding and inspiration from nature's optical ingenuity, such as vivid structural colors, light antireflection, light focusing, and chirality. Progress in engineering bioinspired optical functional materials has been exciting in the past years. In this review, the focus is on the state-of-the-art achievements of bioinspired optical materials with applications in various areas including efficient light manipulation, optical sensors, light-energy conversion, plasmonic materials with ultrahigh surface plasmon resonance (SPR) efficiency and metamaterials. The major challenges and perspectives for bioinspired designs of optical functional materials in the future are also briefly addressed.