Feature

Structural Colors in Nature and Butterfly-Wing Modeling

Gérard Tayeb, Boris Gralak and Stefan Enoch

Periodic structures, such as those found in photonic crystals, can generate iridescent colors. They allow some objects in nature, including opals, to display gleaming colors, even in the absence of pigment. Electromagnetic theory allows the phenomenon to be investigated through modeling.

Publish Date: 01 February 2003