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

ID：MPS/DMR/BMAT（7623）0907529 PI：Srinivasarao，Mohan ORG：格鲁吉亚技术标题：生物学中的光子晶体：蝴蝶翅膀的研究和模仿智力优势：在蝴蝶和甲虫身上发现的鲜艳色彩吸引了生物学家、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翅膀鳞片表面的纳米结构或亚波长结构，从而成为一类称为光子晶体的光学材料的天然类似物。 虽然认识到结构色不是唯一的蝴蝶颜色产生机制，但该提议仅限于结构色产生是蝴蝶翅膀上颜色的主要来源的情况。 这里的重点是各种蝴蝶，产生颜色的结构手段。具体而言，PI打算使用他的实验室开发的方法来表征单个翼鳞的光学特性，从颜色科学的角度以及从光学角度来模拟翼鳞的光学特性，并模仿/复制产生颜色的翼鳞结构。它还建议模仿蝴蝶凤蝶palinurus，它产生的绿色着色的光学特性，通过什么是所谓的颜色刺激合成（CSS）通过使用自下而上的自组装过程。 该提案的科学价值在于，它将试图描述各种具有结构色的蝴蝶的（单个）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。更广泛的影响：所提议的活动的更广泛的影响至少采取三种形式：（i）以非常跨学科的方式进行学生教育;（ii）面向高中学生和高中科学教师的外展活动，以及最近的（iii）与弗朗西斯科探索馆互动，并参与非正式的科学教育。从事这个项目的学生将接受跨学科的培训，他们必须在一定程度上了解生物学，同时精通光学物理学。为了复制这些结构，他们还必须对化学相当熟悉。蝴蝶的颜色是由于其物理结构而产生的，这一事实非常适合高中学生学习光学。因此，PI去当地的高中，并为高中科学教师举办光学讲习班，每年至少一次。 最近，他一直在与旧金山弗朗西斯科探索馆合作，向公众传播他的成果，作为非正式科学教育的一种手段，他将继续与探索馆合作，因为在这个论坛上向公众传播他的工作是非常有益的。

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.