Colloquium

Department of Physics & Astronomy

Butterfly wings made of metal and glass: bio-mimetic replication of morpho butterfly wings

May 30, 2012l Hit 906
Date : May 30, 2012 16:00 ~
Speaker : Prof. Jung Hoon Shin(Physics/KAIST)
Professor :
Location : 56동106호
Multilayer interference underlies many startling colors in nature. In case of Morpho butterflies, a collection of multilayered ridges creates a complex structure with both order and disorder that not only produces a brilliant blue, but paradoxically, color stability across wide viewing angles as well. Yet so far, reproducing such photophysics of Morpho butterflies in a man-made structure has been difficult. Here we report on using silica microspheres and dielectric multilayer to induce a spontaneous formation of Morpho-mimetic structures that can not only match the color and brilliance of Morpho butterflies, but actually provide better performance in maintaining the color and brightness over wider viewing angles under ambient conditions. Our approach is simple, easily scalable to large-scale fabrications, and also enables us to move beyond mimicry to create a flexible, thin-film color reflector that can be folded freely yet retain its Morpho-inspired photonic properties.