Natural and Bioinspired Optics

Read this special collection here:

 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1002/(ISSN)2195-1071.Natural-and-Bioinspired-Optics 

Biological organisms exhibit a plethora of functional structures with optimized properties that have evolved over millions of years for the distinct local conditions in their respective habitats. These organisms continue to motivate materials scientists as they attempt to understand and mimic the main underlying concepts found in nature in order to achieve similar unique features in synthetic systems. Significant areas of biomimetics include engineering materials for construction, architecture, and locomotion (e.g., flight); wet or dry adhesion to interfaces; self-healing materials; and optical materials. Specifically, the structural coloration that many plants, algae, animals such as birds and fish, insects such as butterflies and beetles, and marine bivalve mollusks such as oysters and mussels display as a result of the interference of light with their ordered surface morphology has been a great source of inspiration. New fundamental insights into the physical mechanisms involved in coloration have been reported and used in diverse aspects of photonics. Advanced Optical Materials publishes research on this important topic and the editors have selected up-to-date examples, encompassing both natural and bioinspired optical materials, to feature in this collection. All articles are free to access for a limited time.