| Issue |
EPL
Volume 111, Number 6, September 2015
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | 64001 | |
| Number of page(s) | 6 | |
| Section | Electromagnetism, Optics, Acoustics, Heat Transfer, Classical Mechanics, and Fluid Dynamics | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/111/64001 | |
| Published online | 30 September 2015 | |
Broadening of effective photonic band gaps in biological chiral structures: From intrinsic narrow band gaps to broad band reflection spectra
1 Centro de Investigación en Ciencia e Ingeniería de Materiales and Escuela de Física, Universidad de Costa Rica 11501-2060 San José, Costa Rica
2 Academia Nacional de Ciencias de Costa Rica - 1367-2050 San José, Costa Rica
3 Centro de Investigación en Ciencia e Ingeniería de Materiales and Escuela de Química, Universidad de Costa Rica 11501-2060 San José, Costa Rica
4 Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad - 22-3100 Heredia, Costa Rica
5 Centro de Investigación en Estructuras Microscópicas, Universidad de Costa Rica - 2060 San José, Costa Rica
(a) william.vargascastro@ucr.ac.cr (corresponding author)
Received: 4 July 2015
Accepted: 8 September 2015
Under normal illumination with non-polarized light, reflection spectra of the cuticle of golden-like and red Chrysina aurigans scarabs show a structured broad band of left-handed circularly polarized light. The polarization of the reflected light is attributed to a Bouligand-type left-handed chiral structure found through the scarab's cuticle. By considering these twisted structures as one-dimensional photonic crystals, a novel approach is developed from the dispersion relation of circularly polarized electromagnetic waves traveling through chiral media, to show how the broad band characterizing these spectra arises from an intrinsic narrow photonic band gap whose spectral position moves through visible and near-infrared wavelengths.
PACS: 42.70.-a – Optical materials / 42.70.Qs – Photonic bandgap materials / 87.85.J- – Biomaterials
© EPLA, 2015
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