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Photobiology pp 119–137Cite as

Spectral Tuning in Biology II: Structural Color

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Abstract

Structural colors occur in various kinds of animals, and even in plants, but are particularly prominent in insects and birds. They are formed by the interaction of light with materials with very specific (and usually complex) micro, nanoscale architecture. We begin with a discussion of iridescence, biological mirrors, and reflection in a single thin layer, and continue with reflection by multilayer stacks and two- and three-dimensional photonic crystals, and coloration due to random structures. We finish the chapter with an overview of the diversity of structural colors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan

    Shuichi Kinoshita

  2. Department of Biology, University at Albany, Albany, NY, USA

    Helen Ghiradella

  3. School of Life Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China

    Lars Olof Björn

  4. Department of Biology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

    Lars Olof Björn

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  1. Shuichi Kinoshita
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  2. Helen Ghiradella
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  3. Lars Olof Björn
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Correspondence to Shuichi Kinoshita .

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  1. School of Life Science, Department of Biology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China & Lund University, Lund, Sweden

    Lars Olof Björn

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Kinoshita, S., Ghiradella, H., Björn, L.O. (2015). Spectral Tuning in Biology II: Structural Color. In: Björn, L. (eds) Photobiology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1468-5_10

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