Scattering-enhanced absorption and interference produce a golden wing color of the burnished brass moth, Diachrysia chrysitis

Dejan Pantelić, Svetlana Savić-Šević, Dejan V. Stojanović, Srećko Ćurčić, Aleksandar J. Krmpot, Mihailo Rabasović, Danica Pavlović, Vladimir Lazović, and Vojislav Milošević

Phys. Rev. E 95, 032405 – Published 8 March 2017

Abstract

Here we report how interference and scattering-enhanced absorption act together to produce the golden wing patches of the burnished brass moth. The key mechanism is scattering on rough internal surfaces of the wing scales, accompanied by a large increase of absorption in the UV-blue spectral range. Unscattered light interferes and efficiently reflects from the multilayer composed of the scales and the wing membranes. The resulting spectrum is remarkably similar to the spectrum of metallic gold. Subwavelength morphology and spectral and absorptive properties of the wings are described. Theories of subwavelength surface scattering and local intensity enhancement are used to quantitatively explain the observed reflectance spectrum.

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Received 3 November 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.95.032405

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Biological optics Iridescence

Insects Random & disordered media

Finite-element method Optical microscopy Scanning electron microscopy

Physics of Living SystemsAtomic, Molecular & OpticalInterdisciplinary Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Dejan Pantelić^1,*, Svetlana Savić-Šević¹, Dejan V. Stojanović², Srećko Ćurčić³, Aleksandar J. Krmpot¹, Mihailo Rabasović¹, Danica Pavlović¹, Vladimir Lazović¹, and Vojislav Milošević¹

¹Institute of Physics, University of Belgrade, Pregrevica 118, 11080 Zemun, Belgrade, Serbia
²Institute of Lowland Forestry and Environment, University of Novi Sad, Antona Čehova 13, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia
³Institute of Zoology, University of Belgrade—Faculty of Biology, Studentski Trg 16, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia

^*pantelic@ipb.ac.rs

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Vol. 95, Iss. 3 — March 2017

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Physical Review E

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