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S. Zobl, B. Wilts, W. Salvenmoser, P. Pölt, I. Gebeshuber, T. Schwerte:
"Orientation-Dependent Reflection of Structurally Coloured Butterflies";
bioinspiration & biomimetics, 5 (2020), 5; 1 - 13.

The photonic structures of butterfly wing scales are widely known to cause angledependent
colours by light interference with nanostructures present in the wing scales. Here, we
quantify the relevance of the horizontal alignment of the butterfly wing scales on the wing. The
orientation-dependent reflection was measured at four different azimuth angles, with a step size of
90°, for ten samples-two of different areas of the same species-of eight butterfly species of three
subfamilies at constant angles of illumination and observation. For the observed species with
varying optical structures, the wing typically exhibits higher orientation-dependent reflections than
the individual scale. We find that the measured anisotropy is caused by the commonly observed
grating structures that can be found on all butterfly wing scales, rather than the local photonic
structures. Our results show that the technique employed here can be used to quickly evaluate the
orientation-dependence of the reflection and hence provide important input for bio-inspired
applications, e.g., to identify whether the respective structure is suitable as a template for nanoimprinting
techniques.

orientation-dependent reflection; structural color; butterflies; imprinting technique; instrument adaptation

http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics5010005