Self-assembled Structural Colour

Orateur : Andrew PARNELL (Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Hicks Building, University of Sheffield, UK)

The diversity and vividness of structural colour in the natural world has been known going back as far as William Hooke in the 17th century, what has only relatively recently been recognised is the elegance and finesse of the physics used to create these effects. In my talk I will highlight some of the structures and effects responsible for colour in Butterfly scales, Bird feathers, and Beetle elytra that have been studied to date. We have been able to use x-ray (SAXS) and neutron scattering (Spin echo small angle neutron scattering -SESANS) to help understand and characterise these structures morphologically. I will pinpoint the structures responsible for the optical properties and look at similarities and differences in these structures between various species. This will be alongside our current understanding of how these are created biologically, how they develop structurally and what control mechanisms nature has at its disposal to control structure formation.

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