Photonic Crystals in Biology: Study and Mimicry of Butterfly Wing Scales

ID：MPS/dmr/bmat(7623)0907529 PI：斯里尼瓦萨劳，莫汉ORG：佐治亚理工学院标题：生物学中的光子晶体：蝴蝶翅膀的研究和模仿智力价值：蝴蝶和甲虫身体上发现的鲜艳颜色引起了生物学家、物理学家、化学家以及最近材料科学家的极大关注。现在人们已经认识到，这些颜色中的许多是由于翼鳞表面的纳米结构或亚波长结构，从而成为一类被称为光子晶体的光学材料的天然类似物。虽然人们认识到结构颜色不是唯一的蝴蝶颜色产生机制，但这一提议仅限于结构颜色产生是蝴蝶翅膀上颜色的主要来源的情况。这里的重点是通过结构手段产生色彩的各种蝴蝶。具体地说，PI打算使用他的实验室开发的方法来表征各个翼鳞的光学特性，从颜色科学的角度以及从光学的角度对翼鳞的光学属性进行建模，并模仿/复制产生颜色的翼鳞的结构。也有人建议模仿蝴蝶Papilio Palinurus的光学特征，它通过自下而上的自组装过程产生所谓的颜色刺激合成(CSS)来产生绿色。该提案的科学价值在于，它将尝试描述具有结构颜色的各种(单个)蝴蝶的翅膀鳞片，并使用颜色科学的语言以及光子晶体的语言来模拟它们的光学特性。BROADER影响：拟议活动的更广泛影响至少有三种形式：(I)非常跨学科的学生教育；(Ii)面向高中生和高中科学教师的外联活动；以及最近(Iii)与旧金山探索博物馆的互动和参加非正式的科学教育。从事这个项目的学生将接受非常跨学科的培训，他们必须在一定程度上了解生物学，同时精通光学物理？为了复制这些结构，他们还必须对化学非常熟悉。蝴蝶是由于物理结构而着色的，这一事实非常适合教高中生光学。因此，PI每年至少一次前往当地高中，并为高中理科教师举办一次光学讲习班。最近，他一直在与旧金山探索博物馆合作，将他的成果作为非正式科学教育的一种手段向公众传播，他将继续与探索博物馆合作，因为在这个论坛上向公众传播他的工作是非常有意义的。

ID: MPS/DMR/BMAT(7623) 0907529 PI: Srinivasarao, Mohan ORG: Georgia TechTitle: Photonic Crystals in Biology: Study and Mimicry of Butterfly Wings INTELLECTUAL MERIT: The brilliant colors found on the bodies of butterflies and beetles have attracted enormous attention from biologists, physicists, chemists and more recently from materials scientists. It is now well recognized that many of these colors are due to the nano-structures or sub-wavelength structures on the surface of the wing scales, thus becoming natural analogues of a class of optical materials known as photonic crystals. While it is recognized that structural colors are not the only butterfly color production mechanism, this proposal is limited to instances where structural color production is the primary source of color on the butterfly wings. The focus here is on a variety of butterflies that produce color by structural means. Specifically, the PI intends to characterize the optics of individual wing scales using the methods developed in his laboratory, model the optical properties of the wing scales both from the point of view of color science as well as from an optics perspective, and mimic/replicate the structure of wing scales that produce the color. It is also proposed to mimic the optical character of the butterfly Papilio palinurus, which produces its green coloration by what is termed color stimulus synthesis (CSS) by using bottom-up self-assembly process. The scientific merit of the proposal lies in the fact that it will attempt to characterize a variety of (individual) wing scales of butterflies that possess structural colors, and model their optical properties using the language of color science as well as the language of photonic crystals.BROADER IMPACTS: The broader impacts of the proposed activities take at-least three forms: (i) student education in a very cross-disciplinary fashion; (ii) outreach activities to high school students and high school science teachers and more recently (iii) interacting with the San Francisco Exploratorium and participating in informal science education. The students working on this project will be trained in a very interdisciplinary fashion where they will have to understand the biology to some extent while being well versed in optical physics ? and in order to replicate these structures they will also have to be quite comfortable with chemistry. The fact that butterflies are colored due to physical structures lends itself beautifully to teach optics to high school children. Hence, the PI goes to local high schools and also runs workshops on optics for high school science teachers at least once a year. More recently he has been working with the San Francisco Exploratorium to disseminate his results to the general public as a means of informal science education, and he will continue to collaborate with the Exploratorium, as it is quite rewarding to disseminate his work to the general public in this forum.