Super-Iridescent Display Technology Inspired by Rainbow Peacock Spiders

Innovation: Academia

University of California San Diego

2017

Image: Jean and Fred Holt / Flickr / Some rights reserved

Transform Radiant Energy (Light)

The sun is the ultimate source of energy for many living systems. The sun emits radiant energy, which is carried by light and other electromagnetic radiation as streams of photons. When radiant energy reaches a living system, two events can happen. The radiant energy can convert to heat, or living systems can convert it to chemical energy. The latter conversion is not simple, but is a multi-step process starting when living systems such as algae, some bacteria, and plants capture photons. For example, a potato plant captures photons then converts the light energy into chemical energy through photosynthesis, storing the chemical energy underground as carbohydrates. The carbohydrates in turn feed other living systems.

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Modify Light/Color

Color in living systems comes from pigments and the interaction of light with surfaces. Color serves many purposes for living systems, such as attracting prey or mates, providing warnings, or protecting through camouflage. To create the effects needed for each purpose, living systems must control the expression or visibility of pigments and the interactions (such as reflectance and refraction) of light. To do so, they have strategies that modify color or light to increase or decrease the color’s position, intensity, opacity, and more. Male hummingbirds, for example, have brightly colored feather patches on their throats; the coloring comes from pigments, structures that refract light, or a combination of the two. When a male hummingbird hovers near a potential mate, it modifies the angle of these feathers to create a bright, colorful display. However, when it needs to mute the colors to reduce conspicuousness, such as to avoid a predator, it modifies the angle again.

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Display technology from University of California, San Diego uses light-diffracting microstructures to display vibrant, iridescent colors.

Benefits

Reduced glare
Reduced energy usage
High-definition

Applications

Electronic displays
Security devices

UN Sustainable Development Goals Addressed

Goal 9: Industry Innovation & Infrastructure

The Challenge

Current display technologies rely on energy-intensive, bright lights behind screens. These bright lights have been found to cause eye strain headaches and other health issues after prolonged use.

Innovation Details

The display technology has a microscopic 3D contour with nanoscale diffraction grating structures on the surface. These diffraction grating structures are printed using a novel nano-3D-printer. The combination of the grating structures and the microscopic curvature of the scales enables the fine-tuned separation and isolation of light into a variety of wavelengths, which enables the display of iridescent color.

Biomimicry Story

Male rainbow peacock spiders showcase an intense rainbow iridescent signal as part of their courtship display toward females. They have tiny structured scales on their bodies that reflect the full visual spectrum of light. This method of manipulating light results in brilliant iridescent colors that also aid the spiders in camouflaging themselves and thermoregulation.

References

Journal article

Rainbow peacock spiders inspire miniature super-iridescent optics

Nature Communications

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Reference

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