Bio-inspired band-gap tunable elastic optical multilayer fibers

Mathias Kolle; Alfred Lethbridge; Moritz Kreysing; Jeremy J Baumberg; Joanna Aizenberg; Peter Vukusic

doi:10.1002/adma.201203529

Bio-inspired band-gap tunable elastic optical multilayer fibers

Adv Mater. 2013 Apr 18;25(15):2239-45. doi: 10.1002/adma.201203529. Epub 2013 Jan 27.

Authors

Mathias Kolle¹, Alfred Lethbridge, Moritz Kreysing, Jeremy J Baumberg, Joanna Aizenberg, Peter Vukusic

Affiliation

¹ Harvard University, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, 9 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. [email protected]

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.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Elasticity
Embryophyta / chemistry
Fruit / chemistry
Optical Fibers*
Photons

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding