Production and Measurement of Artificial Optical Nanostructures Mimicking the Blue Morpho Butterfly

The Amazonian Blue Morpho Rhetenor's vibrant blue coloration is an archetype of structural color in the natural world. Drawing inspiration from nature, researchers have attempted to reproduce the treelike nanostructures for applications in tunable color, security, and gas sensory. Previous work has produced highly periodic structures over small areas; these structures provide the desired color over a small range of viewing angles, but lack the angular independence of the butterfly's coloration. To remedy this diffractive effect, a Direct Write exposure method is employed to randomize the periodicity of spacings between photonic structures. Optimization and implementation of this method yields a variety of heretofore unseen structures, many of which dramatically improve the angle-independence of observed color. Additional finite-difference time-domain simulation gives insight into how each structural parameter affects reflected light. In general, thin, straight trunks with long branches produce optical characteristics most similar to the Morpho.Bachelor of Scienc