Electrical & Computer Engineering, Department of

 

ORCID IDs

Bor-Kai Hsiung http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9657-3484

Radwanul Hasan Siddique http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7494-5857

Doekele G. Stavenga http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2518-6177

Yong-Feng Lu http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5942-1999

Dimitri D. Deheyn http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6496-9297

Matthew D. Shawkey http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5131-8209

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2017

Citation

NATURE COMMUNICATIONS 8: 2278 (2017)

doi 10.1038/s41467-017-02451-x |

Comments

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Abstract

Colour produced by wavelength-dependent light scattering is a key component of visual communication in nature and acts particularly strongly in visual signalling by structurallycoloured animals during courtship. Two miniature peacock spiders (Maratus robinsoni and M. chrysomelas) court females using tiny structured scales (~ 40 × 10 μm2) that reflect the full visual spectrum. Using TEM and optical modelling, we show that the spiders’ scales have 2D nanogratings on microscale 3D convex surfaces with at least twice the resolving power of a conventional 2D diffraction grating of the same period. Whereas the long optical path lengths required for light-dispersive components to resolve individual wavelengths constrain current spectrometers to bulky sizes, our nano-3D printed prototypes demonstrate that the design principle of the peacock spiders’ scales could inspire novel, miniature light-dispersive components.

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