Butterfly Wings Are Templates for Photonic Structures

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This scanning electron microscope image shows the structure on the surface of a butterfly wing scale. Image courtesy of Zhong Lin Wang
This scanning electron microscope image shows the structure on the surface of a butterfly wing scale. Image courtesy of Zhong Lin Wang

By replicating the complex micron- and nanometer-scale photonic structures that help give butterfly wings their color, researchers have demonstrated a new technique that uses biotemplates for fabricating nanoscale structures that could serve as optical waveguides, optical splitters and other building blocks of photonic integrated circuits.


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