Structural Colors In The Realm Of Nature

Structural colorations originate from self-organized microstructures, which interact with light in a complex way to produce brilliant colors seen everywhere in nature. Research in this field is extremely new and has been rapidly growing in the last 10 years, because the elaborate structures created in nature can now be fabricated through various types of nanotechnologies. Indeed, a fundamental book covering this field from biological, physical, and engineering viewpoints has long been expected.Coloring in nature comes mostly from inherent colors of materials, though it sometimes has a purely physical origin such as diffraction or interference of light. The latter, called structural color or iridescence, has long been a problem of scientific interest. Recently, structural colors have attracted great interest because various photonic architectures, now developing in modern technologies, have been spontaneously created in the self-organization process and have been extensively used as one of the important visual functions. In this book, the fundamental optical properties underlying structural colors are explained, and these mysteries of nature are surveyed from the viewpoint of biological diversity and according to their sophisticated structures. The book proposes a general principle of structural colors based on the structural hierarchy and presents up-to-date applications.

This book is devoted to the rapidly growing area of science dealing with structure and properties of biological surfaces in their relation to particular functions. This volume, written by a team of specialists from different disciplines, covers various biological surface functions: sensing, coloration, attachment, drag reduction, moisture harvesting, etc. Because biological surfaces have a virtually endless potential of technological ideas for the development of new materials and systems, inspirations from biology could also be interesting for a broad range of topics in surface engineering. This volume together with two previous volumes “Functional Surfaces in Biology” (vols. 1 & 2 published in 2009) taken together, present a good reference for a novice in the field. The book is intended for use by researchers who are active, or intend to become active, in the field. The appeal of this topic is expected to be broad, ranging from classical biology, biomechanics and physics to such applied fields as materials science and surface engineering.

Unlike most natural colours that are based on pigment absorption, the striking iridescent and intense colouration of many butterflies, birds or beetles stems from the interaction of light with periodic sub-micrometer surface or volume patterns, so called “photonic structures”. These “structural colours” are increasingly well understood, but they are difficult to create artificially and exploit technologically. In this thesis the field of natural structural colours and biomimetic photonic structures is covered in a wide scope, ranging from plant photonics to theoretical optics. It demonstrates diffractive elements on the petal surfaces of many flowering plant species; these form the basis for the study of the role of structural colours in pollinator attraction. Self-assembly techniques, combined with scale able nanofabrication methods, were used to create complex artificial photonic structures inspired by those found in nature. In particular, the colour effect of a Papilio butterfly was mimicked and, by variation of its design motive, enhanced. All photonic effects described here are underpinned by state-of-the-art model calculations.

Photonic structures occurring in biological tissues such as butterfly wings, beetle elytra or fish scales are responsible for a broad range of optical effects including iridescence, narrow-band reflection, large solid-angle scattering, polarization effects, additive color mixing, fluid-induced color changes, controlled fluorescence. Studies have provided understanding of the underlying optical mechanisms and the biological functions as well as inspiration for the design and development of novel photonic devices, also called bioinspiration. In this forward-thinking book, the research related to photonic structures in natural organisms is reviewed with a main foPhotonic structures occurring in biological tissues such as butterfly wings, beetle elytra, or fish scales are responsible for a broad range of optical effects including iridescence, narrow band reflection, large solid-angle scattering, polarization, additive color mixing, fluid induced color changes, and controlled fluorescence. This book reviews research of biological photonic devices in accordance with the fundamental aspects of physical optics and environmental biology. It provides readers with an understanding of numerical modelling based on morphological and optical characterizations as well as the quantitative treatment of color vision. This forward-thinking book ties these concepts to the design and synthesis of bioinspired photonic devices and opens the door to the applications of nature’s lessons in the technical world. This resource introduces a methodology for working with and utilizing bioinspiration. It includes the experimental and numerical tools necessary for the characterization and simulation of photonic structures and uses original concepts as examples, with a focus on bioinspired hygrochromatic materials. Professionals are brought up to speed on a variety of fabrication techniques and methods of synthesis all following a straightforward bottom-up or top-down approach. The reader will gain an understanding of the capability of bioinspiration to meet human needs. This book’s explanation of how natural photonics structures behave as efficient solar absorbers or thermal management devices makes it a useful resource for technical professionals in the field of energy and environment, and the concepts presented in this book also have applications in the designs of optical coatings, sensors, and light sources.

Biomimetic photonics is a burgeoning field. Biologists are finding and describing a whole menagerie of unique and astonishingly complex nano- and microstructures in fauna and flora. Material scientists are developing novel multifunctional and hierarchical structures with a wide variety of post-nano era photonics applications. Mathematicians and com

This revised, updated and expanded new edition presents an overview of biomimetics and biologically inspired structured surfaces. It deals with various examples of biomimetics which include surfaces with roughness-induced superomniphobicity, self-cleaning, antifouling, and controlled adhesion. The focus in the book is on the Lotus Effect, Salvinia Effect, Rose Petal Effect, Oleophobic/philic Surfaces, Shark Skin Effect, and Gecko Adhesion. This new edition also contains new chapters on the butterfly wing effect, bio- and inorganic fouling and structure and Properties of Nacre and structural coloration.

Patterns and their formations appear throughout nature, and are studied to analyze different problems in science and make predictions across a wide range of disciplines including biology, physics, mathematics, chemistry, material science, and nanoscience. With the emergence of nanoscience and the ability for researchers and scientists to study living systems at the biological level, pattern formation research has become even more essential. This book is an accessible first of its kind guide for scientists, researchers, engineers, and students who require a general introduction to this research area, in order to gain a deeper analytical understanding of the most recent observations and experiments by top researchers in physics. Pattern Formations describes the most up-to-date status of this developing field and analyzes the physical phenomena behind a wide range of interesting topics commonly known in the scientific community. The study of pattern formations as a research field will continue to grow as scientists expand their understanding of naturally occurring patterns and mimic nature to help solve complex problems. This research area is becoming more highly recognized due to its contributions to signal processing, computer analysis, image processing, complex networks development, advancements in optics and photonics, crystallography, metallurgy, drug delivery (chemotherapy) and the further understanding of gene regulation. The only introductory reference book which places special emphasis on the theoretical analyses of experiments in this rapidly growing field of pattern formation A wide range of physical applications make this book highly interdisciplinary Explanations of observations and experiments deepen the readers understanding of this developing research field