Color Evaluation of Structurally Colored Films by Angle of Incidence

Introduction

Biomimetics is a new field of technology that in- corporates to mimic the functions or structures of biological organisms into technology development and manufacturing. The wings of the morpho butterfly contain no pigment, and yet appear a brilliant blue due to their structure. This is called structural coloration, which for the morpho butterfly arises from light interference caused by the complex structure of scales that cover the wings. Some familiar examples of structural coloration is the thin-film interference that occurs on the surface of soap bubbles, the multilayer interference that occurs on jewel beetles and inside shells, and the structural coloration seen on CD-ROMs. Characteristics of structural coloration are that coloration varies according to the angle of view, and colors do not fade like a pigment since they are produced by a structure. With the cooperation of Teijin DuPont Films Japan Limited, we performed measurements of a new optical film called multilayer film (MLF). In this article, we report the results of our observations of coloration changes at different angles of incident light, a characteristic property of structurally colored materials.

May 31, 2016 GMT