Abstract

Blue Morpho butterflies are well-known for their blue irradiance. This famous blue reflection originates from nanostructures in the scales of their wings [1, 2]. These optical active structures integrate three design principles leading to the wide angle reflection: alternative lamellae layers, Christmas tree like shape, and zigzag pattern of the ridges. In order to study their individual effects rigorously, we use 2D FEM simulation of the nanostructures of Morpho sulkowskyi (inset in Fig. 1(a)) [3] to calculate their reflection spectrum shown in Fig. 1(a). The reflection spectrum is found to be broad (~ 90 nm) for alternating layers and can be controlled by varying the design pattern. The Christmas tree like pattern helps to reduce the directionality of the reflectance.

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