University of Fribourg, Switzerland
Adolphe Merkle Institute


Invited Talk

Disordered Structural Colour in Nature

The manipulation of light lies at the very core of how most organisms interact. While the physical and chemical underpinnings of “colour” are seemingly well established, the detailed investigation of how animals and plants manipulate the flow of light continues to surprise us. Structural colour, widely used in the animal kingdom, is commonly assumed to arise from highly periodic structures. Many organisms use, however, photonic effects (colour produced by light interference) that occur from seemingly disordered 100-nm morphologies. This presentation will start with an overview of how 500 million years of evolution have produced optical effects that are unparalleled in technological development. The challenges in understanding the principles of “disordered photonics” will then be described, followed by the progress currently being made. The second part of the presentation will focus on approaches to fabricating materials that implement the lessons learned from nature.