BOYON , Cécilia

Colorful, cholesteric patterns are ubiquitous in the bodies of insects and fishes. Bioinspired materials may be employed in smart coatings for optical communication, signaling, and camouflage. However, due to the fundamental challenges associated with such applications, the development of adaptive monolayers with continuous, hierarchical...

The twisted structures of the chitin-based cuticle of beetles confer specific optical characteristics on them. Intrigued by the observation of Bragg gratings with a depth-dependent periodicity in the cuticle of Chrysina beetles, we determine the experimental conditions leading to their transcription into cholesteric liquid-crystal oligomers. We...