Fabrication Of Photonic Crystal Structures Based On Bio-templates And Their Properties Characterization

In this paper, using butterfly wings and parrot feather barbs as biological templates, we successfully fabricated ZnO replica of butterfly wings and ZnO3, SnO2replicas of parrot feather barbs through fulfill the templates with precursors then remove the templates. After the fabrication procedure, the fabricated samples were tested by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and some of the samples were tested by Laser Diffraction Experiment, Reflectance spectrum or Photoluminescence (PL) to characterize their optical performance. The main works and innovation points of this article are as follows:1. Two kinds of butterfly wings’scales were used as biological templates and ZnO replicas were fabricated using sol-gel method. SEM was used to observe the samples and we found that the ZnO replicas inherited the structures of the butterfly wings very well and possess periodical structure, the laser diffraction experiment shows that the ZnO replica of light blue scales has very good performance in diffraction.2. Parrot feather barbs were used as bio-templates and ZnO, Fe2O3, SnO2replicas were fabricated using sol-gel method. SEM was used to observe the samples and we found that the SnO2replica inherited the amorphous photonic structure of the feather barbs best and display vivid structural color.3. Reflectance spectrum and Photoluminescence were used to characterize the optical performance of the SnO2replica. A strong suppression effect to the green emission and an amplification effect to the blue-violet emission brought from the photonic bandgap were found, these modulation effects make the replica very attractive in the development of new optoelectronic devices.