Tag Archives: Biomimetic gyroid nanostructures exceeding their natural origins

Green Hairstreak butterfly could make computer screens more brilliant

When talking about mimicking the nanostructures on butterfly wings, the butterfly in question is the Blue Morpho, usually. In a change of pace, researchers at Australia’s Swinburne University of Technology have focused their attention on the Green Hairstreak butterfly,

Nanostructures on the wings of the Callophrys Rubi or Green Hairstreak butterfly have inspired the design of an artificial material that could be used in photonics and optics technologies. Courtesy: Swinburne University of Technology

Nanostructures on the wings of the Callophrys Rubi or Green Hairstreak butterfly have inspired the design of an artificial material that could be used in photonics and optics technologies. Courtesy: Swinburne University of Technology

A June 1, 2016 Swinburne University of Technology press release describes the work,

Inspired by the intricate structure of a butterfly wing, Swinburne researchers have developed a technique that could be used to make more brilliant computer screens.

The researchers used a special printing technique to create tiny structures similar to those found in the wings of the Callophrys Rubi butterfly, also known as the Green Hairstreak.

In some iridescent butterfly wings, such as the Green Hairstreak, the wing is made up of a pattern of intertwining and curved surfaces, known as a gyroid structure.  This gyroid structure has amazing properties when it comes to its interactions with light.

The researchers used two-beams of light to print at a super-resolution, creating gyroid structures that are three-dimensional and mechanically strong.

Lead author Dr Zongsong Gan from Swinburne’s Centre for Micro-Photonics says that materials made from these artificial gyroids should respond to light at ultrafast speeds making them ideal for high-speed switches.

He says the technique has two significant advantages.

“The first is that it has improved resolution and the second is that the materials fabricated with this technique have better mechanical strength.

“These new gyroid structures could help make more compact light based electronics because, thanks to their smaller size, larger numbers of devices can be integrated onto a single chip.

“However, for three-dimensional devices, smaller and more compact also means there is a higher risk of structure collapse because of weaker mechanical strength.

“Our fabrication technique allows us to make stronger architectures to overcome this problem,” Dr Gan says.

Here’s an image illustrating the work,

Comparison of natural gyroid structure with artificial structure. Courtesy: Swinburne University of Technology

Comparison of natural gyroid structure with artificial structure. Courtesy: Swinburne University of Technology

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Biomimetic gyroid nanostructures exceeding their natural origins by Zongsong Gan, Mark D. Turner, and Min Gu. Science Advances  13 May 2016: Vol. 2, no. 5, e1600084
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1600084

This appears to be an open access paper,