Morphology-controlled synthesis of ZnO replicas with photonic structures from butterfly (Papilio paris) wing scales for tunable optical properties
Abstract
ZnO replicas with photonic structures were fabricated from Papilio paris butterfly wing scales and their tunable optical properties were studied. Through modification of the fabrication method, the reticular porous network structure was successfully replicated from dark black (DB) wing scales. The DB wing scale replicas exhibit a photonic band gap (PBG) in the visible region, which overlaps with the visible emission range of ZnO. Both DB and GB (greenish-blue) wing scale replicas can work as one-dimensional diffraction gratings in optical diffraction experiments, whose spot distances can be tuned by different periodic sizes of butterfly wing structure. Moreover, the ZnO DB wing scale replicas exhibit improved photoluminescence (PL)