Home > Press > Seeing the Light? Making Sense of Disorder in Polymer Opals
![]() |
Abstract:
The iridescent colours of natural opals have fascinated people for thousands of years. It is interesting, however, that the colours we see are generated only by diffraction of light between the ordered planes of atoms which make up the structures. In order to reproduce this effect in artificial systems and to allow such opal characteristics to be applied to, for example, flexible materials such as clothing or packaging, research into synthetic opals has gained momentum in the last decades.
The diffraction of light from opal materials is very sensitive to the angle of reflection from the atomic planes within these materials, and variations in these angles can occur as a result of defects within the crystal structure. In order to fully characterize and understand the optical properties of synthesized opals it is important to be able to completely measure this angle-dependence; however, previously a technique to do this has been lacking.
Now, Andrew I. Haines and Jeremy J. Baumberg et al. have described a new way of measuring the three-dimensional angular scattering of light from nanostructures (hyperspectral goniometry technique), and use it to show that scattering from polymer opals, composed of ordered polymer nanospheres, is anisotropic. Specifically, light is scattered more broadly in the direction perpendicular to sample processing. They find that this effect is the result of chain defects, i.e., the presence of extra lines of polymer nanospheres, in the polymer-opal films tested; and that the enhanced colour observed when the structures are more highly ordered is due to an increased effective refractive-index contrast.
Furthermore, by doping these synthetic opal structures with light-absorbing carbon nanoparticles they discovered the colour saturation could be greatly improved as the nanoparticles absorb multiply scattered light so lower the background scattering without affecting the resonant scattering.
This research was reported in Advanced Optical Materials, a new section in Advanced Materials dedicated to breakthrough discoveries and fundamental research in photonics, plasmonics, metamaterials, and more, covering all aspects of light-matter interactions. Advanced Optical Materials will start as an independent journal in 2013. More information can be found on www.advopticalmat.de
####
For more information, please click here
Copyright © Wiley-VCH Materials Science Journals
If you have a comment, please Contact us.Issuers of news releases, not 7th Wave, Inc. or Nanotechnology Now, are solely responsible for the accuracy of the content.
Related Links |
Link to the original paper on Wiley Online Library:
Related News Press |
News and information
Electrifying results shed light on graphene foam as a potential material for lab grown cartilage June 6th, 2025
Quantum computers simulate fundamental physics: shedding light on the building blocks of nature June 6th, 2025
A 1960s idea inspires NBI researchers to study hitherto inaccessible quantum states June 6th, 2025
Discoveries
Researchers unveil a groundbreaking clay-based solution to capture carbon dioxide and combat climate change June 6th, 2025
Cambridge chemists discover simple way to build bigger molecules – one carbon at a time June 6th, 2025
Electrifying results shed light on graphene foam as a potential material for lab grown cartilage June 6th, 2025
A 1960s idea inspires NBI researchers to study hitherto inaccessible quantum states June 6th, 2025
Announcements
Electrifying results shed light on graphene foam as a potential material for lab grown cartilage June 6th, 2025
Quantum computers simulate fundamental physics: shedding light on the building blocks of nature June 6th, 2025
A 1960s idea inspires NBI researchers to study hitherto inaccessible quantum states June 6th, 2025
Textiles/Clothing
Protective equipment with graphene nanotubes meets the strictest ESD safety standards March 25th, 2022
Polymer fibers with graphene nanotubes make it possible to heat hard-to-reach, complex-shaped items February 11th, 2022
Flexible material shows potential for use in fabrics to heat, cool July 3rd, 2020
Photonics/Optics/Lasers
Institute for Nanoscience hosts annual proposal planning meeting May 16th, 2025
Programmable electron-induced color router array May 14th, 2025
![]() |
||
![]() |
||
The latest news from around the world, FREE | ||
![]() |
![]() |
||
Premium Products | ||
![]() |
||
Only the news you want to read!
Learn More |
||
![]() |
||
Full-service, expert consulting
Learn More |
||
![]() |