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 structurally-coloured 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.

Details

Title
Rainbow peacock spiders inspire miniature super-iridescent optics
Author
Bor-Kai Hsiung 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Siddique, Radwanul Hasan 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Stavenga, Doekele G 3   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Otto, Jürgen C 4 ; Allen, Michael C 5 ; Liu, Ying 6 ; Yong-Feng, Lu 6   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Deheyn, Dimitri D 5   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Shawkey, Matthew D 7   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Blackledge, Todd A 8 

1  Department of Biology and Integrated Bioscience Program, The University of Akron, Akron, OH, USA; Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO), University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA 
2  Department of Medical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA 
3  Department of Computational Physics, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands 
4  19 Grevillea Avenue, St. Ives, NSW, Australia 
5  Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO), University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA 
6  Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA 
7  Department of Biology and Integrated Bioscience Program, The University of Akron, Akron, OH, USA; Biology Department, Evolution and Optics of Nanostructures Group, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium 
8  Department of Biology and Integrated Bioscience Program, The University of Akron, Akron, OH, USA 
First page
1
Publication year
2017
Publication date
Dec 2017
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20411723
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-02451-x
ProQuest document ID
1983426577
Copyright
© 2017. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.