Publication Date:
2007-01-20
Description:
The colored appearances of animals are controlled by pigmentation, highly periodic ultrastructure, or a combination of both. Whiteness, however, is less common and is generated by neither of these, because it requires scattering processes appropriate for all visible wavelengths. We report whiteness resulting from a three-dimensional photonic solid in the scales of Cyphochilus spp. beetles. Their scales are characterized by their exceptional whiteness, their perceived brightness, and their optical brilliance, but they are only 5 micrometers thick. This thickness is at least two orders of magnitude thinner than common synthetic systems designed for equivalent-quality whiteness.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Vukusic, Pete -- Hallam, Benny -- Noyes, Joe -- BB/E000177/1/Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council/United Kingdom -- JF16983/Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council/United Kingdom -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2007 Jan 19;315(5810):348.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉School of Physics, Exeter University, Exeter EX4 4QL, UK. P.Vukusic@ex.ac.uk〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17234940" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
Beetles/*ultrastructure
;
*Color
;
Fourier Analysis
;
Lasers
;
Light
;
Microscopy, Electron, Scanning
;
Microscopy, Electron, Transmission
;
Optics and Photonics
;
Scattering, Radiation
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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