Theoretische Physik, Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, 91058 Erlangen, Germany.
Phys Rev Lett. 2011 Mar 11;106(10):103902. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.103902.
Nature provides impressive examples of chiral photonic crystals, with the notable example of the cubic so-called srs network (the label for the chiral degree-three network modeled on SrSi2) or gyroid structure realized in wing scales of several butterfly species. By a circular polarization analysis of the band structure of such networks, we demonstrate strong circular dichroism effects: The butterfly srs microstructure, of cubic I4(1)32 symmetry, shows significant circular dichroism for blue to ultraviolet light, that warrants a search for biological receptors sensitive to circular polarization. A derived synthetic structure based on four like-handed silicon srs nets exhibits a large circular polarization stop band of a width exceeding 30%. These findings offer design principles for chiral photonic devices.
自然界提供了令人印象深刻的手性光子晶体实例，其中一个显著的例子是立方所谓的 srs 网络（仿照 SrSi2 构建的手性三阶网络的标签）或在几种蝴蝶翅鳞片中实现的准晶 gyroid 结构。通过对这些网络的能带结构进行圆偏振分析，我们证明了强圆二色性效应：具有立方 I4(1)32 对称的蝴蝶 srs 微结构在蓝紫光范围内表现出显著的圆二色性，这需要寻找对圆偏振敏感的生物受体。基于四个类似手性硅 srs 网络的衍生合成结构表现出宽度超过 30%的大圆偏振截止带。这些发现为手性光子器件的设计提供了原则。
