Biological growth and synthetic fabrication of structurally colored materials
Name
McDougal_2019_J._Opt._21_073001.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
7.42 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
0604a24a1a109d653949bd9930c15c63
Author(s)
McDougal, Anthony Drew
Miller, Benjamin A.
Singh, Meera
Kolle, Mathias
Date Issued
June 2019
Journal
Journal of Optics
Publisher
IOP Publishing
Citation
McDougal, Anthony et al. "Biological growth and synthetic fabrication of structurally colored materials." Journal of Optics 21, 7 (June 2019): 073001 © 2019 IOP Publishing Ltd
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Nature's light manipulation strategies - in particular those at the origin of bright iridescent colors - have fascinated humans for centuries. In recent decades, insights into the fundamental concepts and physics underlying biological light-matter interactions have enabled a cascade of attempts to copy nature's optical strategies in synthetic structurally colored materials. However, despite rapid advances in bioinspired materials that emulate and exceed nature's light manipulation abilities, we tend to create these materials via methods that have little in common with the processes used by biology. In this review, we compare the processes that enable the formation of biological photonic structures with the procedures employed by scientists and engineers to fabricate biologically inspired photonic materials. This comparison allows us to reflect upon the broader strategies employed in synthetic processes and to identify biological strategies which, if incorporated into the human palette of fabrication approaches, could significantly advance our abilities to control material structure in three dimensions across all relevant length scales.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 unported license
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1088/2040-8986/aaff39
