The colors of some living organisms assosiated with the surface structure. Irridesence butterfly wings is an example of such coloration. Optical effects such as interference, diffraction, polarization are responsible for physical colors appearance. Alongside with amazing beauty this structure represent interest for design of optical devices. Here we report the results of morphology investigation by atomic force microscopy. The difference in surface structure of black and blue wings areas is clearly observed. It explains the angle dependence of the wing blue color, since these micrometer and sub-micrometer quasiperiodical structures could control the light propagation, absorption and reflection.

Date Published: 7 January 2015
PDF: 5 pages
Proc. SPIE 9442, Optics and Measurement Conference 2014, 944209 (7 January 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2176720

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9442:
Optics and Measurement Conference 2014
Jana Kovačičinová; Tomáš Vít, Editor(s)