Mission statement

Bio-Inspired Optics: Offering Physical and Technological Insights in Color and Structure

Inverse opal : Silica inverse opal photonic crystal made by by one-step co-assembly.

Titania butterfly scale - high magnification : Secondary electron image of structure within a ventral brown cover scale from Morpho helenor wing after surface sol-gel (SSG) deposition of Ti-O- bearing solution followed by organic pyrolysis of native bioorganic material. Figure courtesy J.P. Vernon, Prof. K.H. Sandhage (Georgia Institute of Technology).

Micro-plates : Patterned epoxy micro-plate arrays that cause diffraction, imaged at an angle.

Structures on the scales of Morpho rhethenor : Transmission electron micrograph of cross-section through a single butterfly scale.

Scales on the wings of Morpho rhetenor : Scanning electron micrograph of the scales found on the wings of the butterfly.

Luminous snails : Shells from luminous snails provide new models to assess the biochemistry, structure and crystallographic arrangement of calcium carbonate showing color specific light diffusion.

Morpho helenor : Dorsal and ventral sides of Morpho helenor butterfly wing, the corresponding microstructure within a single cover scale, and chitin, a prominent biopolymer present in butterfly cuticle. Figure courtesy J.P. Vernon, Prof. K.H. Sandhage (Georgia Institute of Technology).

Native Morpho helenor scale : Secondary electron image of structure within ventral brown cover scale from Morpho helenor butterfly wing Figure courtesy J.P. Vernon, Prof. K.H. Sandhage (Georgia Institute of Technology).

Native Morpho helenor scale at high magnification : Secondary electron image of structure within ventral brown cover scale from Morpho helenor butterfly wing Figure courtesy J.P. Vernon, Prof. K.H. Sandhage (Georgia Institute of Technology).

Internal Structure of butterfly wing scale : Secondary electron image of focused ion beam milled cross-section within ventral brown cover scale from Morpho helenor butterfly wing. Figure courtesy Y. Cai, J.P. Vernon, Prof. K.H. Sandhage (Georgia Institute of Technology).

Titania butterfly scale : Secondary electron image of hollow TiO2 replica of ventral brown cover scale from Morpho helenor wing after surface sol-gel (SSG) deposition of Ti-O- bearing solution followed by organic pyrolysis of native bioorganic material. Figure courtesy J.P. Vernon, Prof. K.H. Sandhage (Georgia Institute of Technology).

Butterfly scales : Optical micrograph of the bright green scales found on the wings of the butterfly Parides sesostris.

Brittlestars : Luminous brittlestars serve as models for studying light manipulation with calcium carbonate structures.

The BIOOPTICS MURI’s mission is to develop a better understanding of the relationship between structure and optical function in biological organisms and to design innovative bio-inspired optical structures. The research is conducted in four focused thrust areas.

The goal of Thrust 1 is to develop an understanding of the strategies utilized in nature to control light. Thrust 2 involves the investigation of novel protocols for the self-assembly of hierarchical 3D photonic structures that integrate biological and synthetic strategies. Thrust 3 is developing novel dynamic, tunable optical architectures that mimic biological structural coloration strategies identified in Thrust 1. Finally, Thrust 4 provides theoretical modeling to enrich our understanding of the structure-response relationship in the biological and bio-inspired photonic systems studied in Thrusts 1-3.

BIO-OPTICS

Bio-Inspired Optics: Offering Physical and Technological Insights into Color and Structure

A DoD Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) sponsored by AFOSR

Mission statement

Bio-Inspired Optics: Offering Physical and Technological Insights in Color and Structure