Hui Cao, Yale University

22 Novembre, 11H Amphitéâtre Urbain.

Séminaire donné par Hui Cao,Department of Applied Physics, Yale University

Structural Color in Nature

Structural color has attracted much attention in a wide variety of disciplines. It originates from the physical interaction of light with nanostructure. Most studies have focused on ordered structures in the natural world which produce iridescent colors that change with viewing angle. However, nature has also used extensively quasi-ordered structures to create weakly iridescent colors. We investigated the physical mechanism for coloration of nanostructures with short-range order in bird feather barbs. Inspired by nature, we developed a simple technique to fabricate large-scale biomimetic films which display isotropic structural color, that is amenable to potential applications in coatings, cosmetics, and textiles. To investigate how the structural color evolves in nature, we conducted the artificial selection on a lab model butterfly to evolve the structural color of wing scales and compared to natural selection. This work reveals the physical mechanism of structural color evolution, which stands in sharp contrast to pigment color evolution. Finally we demonstrated lasing in biomimetic structures with short-range order.