Abstract
Morpho butterfly is known with its conspicuous metallic blue coloration. However, this color is physically anomalous, because it is produced by optical interference effect, whereas always blue (not rainbow color) independent of the viewing angle. The clue to solve this mystery was found to be a specific nanostructures containing both of order and disorder. By extracting the optical essence, we reproduced successfully the artificial Morpho-color, which has recently been found to have various potential applications. This is because the Morpho-color makes colors qualitatively impossible by pigment, resistant to fading over longtime, and enables simultaneously high reflectivity and single color in wide angular range. Although there are many problems for industrial applications such as mass-production, cost, and “design of randomness”, etc., we approach the reality in applications step by step using the updated nanotechnologies. In this report, I summarize our several outcomes and perspective to realize the applications of the specific Morpho-color.
