Bio-inspired band-gap tunable elastic optical multilayer fibers.

Kolle, Mathias; Lethbridge, Alfred; Kreysing, Moritz; Baumberg, Jeremy J; Aizenberg, Joanna; Vukusic, Peter · Adv Mater · 2013

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

The concentrically-layered photonic structure found in the tropical fruit Margaritaria nobilis serves as inspiration for photonic fibers with mechanically tunable band-gap. The fibers show the spectral filtering capabilities of a planar Bragg stack while the microscopic curvature decreases the strong directional chromaticity associated with flat multilayers. Elongation of the elastic fibers results in a shift of the reflection of over 200 nm.

Medical subject headings