Diamond‐Structured Titania Photonic‐Bandgap Crystals from Biological Templates

Abstract

Photonic crystal scales with a diamond-based lattice from the weevil Lamprocyphus augustus are transformed into a high-dielectric titania replica by a biotemplating double-imprint route. Multidirectional optical reflectance spectroscopy of the replicated structure gives an angle-independent reflection band in the visible spectrum, in agreement with photonic band structure calculations, which reveal the formation of a complete photonic bandgap at visible frequencies. Detailed facts of importance to specialist readers are published as ”Supporting Information”. Such documents are peer-reviewed, but not copy-edited or typeset. They are made available as submitted by the authors. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.