The scarab beetle Cetonia aurata is known to reflect light with brilliant colors and a high degree of circular polarization. Both color and polarization effects originate from the beetles exoskeleton and have been attributed to a Bragg reflection of the incident light due to a twisted laminar structure. Our strategy for mimicking the optical properties of the Cetonia aurata was therefore to design and fabricate transparent, chiral films. A series of films with tailored transparent structures of helicoidal InxAl1-xN nanorods were grown on sapphire substrates using UHV magnetron sputtering. The value of x is tailored to gradually decrease from one side to the other in each nanorod normal to its growth direction. This introduces an in-plane anisotropy with different refractive indices in the direction of the gradient and perpendicular to it. By rotating the sample during film growth the in-plane optical axis will be rotated from bottom to top and thereby creating a chiral film. Based on Muellermatrix ellipsometry, optical modeling has been done suggesting that both the exoskeleton of Cetonia aurata and our artificial material can be modeled by an anisotropic film made up of a stack of thin layers, each one with its in-plane optical axis slightly rotated with respect to the previous layer. Simulations based on the optical modeling were used to investigate how pitch and thickness of the film together with the optical properties of the constitutive materials affects the width and spectral position of the Bragg reflection band.
A Mueller matrix of a sample can be used to determine the polarization of reflected light for incident light with arbitrary polarization. The polarization can be quantified in terms of ellipticity, polarization azimuth and degree of polarization. We apply spectroscopic Mueller-matrix ellipsometry at multiple angles of incidence to study the cuticle of beetles and derive polarization features for incident unpolarized light. In particular we address chiral phenomena in scarab beetles, the origin of their structural colors and the observed high degree of circular polarization is discussed. Results from beetles in Scarabaeidae subfamilies Cetoniinae and Rutelinae are presented including specimens with broad-band silver-or gold-like colors with metallic shine as well as specimens with narrow-band green or red reflectors. The variation of polarization with angle of incidence and occurrence of both left-handed and right-handed polarization from a single species are presented. We also use Mueller-matrix thicknesses and optical properties. Interference oscillations in the observed spectra are due to allowed optical modes and we show how to develop a structural model of a cuticle based on this effect. Sum decomposition of Mueller matrices measured on a depolarizing cuticle of a beetle is briefly discussed.
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