Optical measurement and fabrication from a <i>Morpho</i>-butterfly-scale quasistructure by focused ion beam chemical vapor deposition

Abstract

The Morpho-butterfly wing reflects interfered brilliant blue, which originates from nanostructures on its scales, for any incidence angle of white light. We have fabricated a Morpho-butterfly-scale quasistructure using focused ion beam chemical vapor deposition and observed brilliant blue reflection from this quasistructure with an optical microscope. We measured the reflection from real Morpho-butterfly scales and from the quasistructure with a photonic multichannel spectral analyzer system. The reflection spectra of the quasistructure were very similar to those of Morpho-butterfly scales.