New butterfly-inspired device for faster communication

The design for this crystal was inspired by the ‘Callophrys Rubi’ butterfly,which has 3D nano-structures within its wings which give them their vibrant green colour. Other insects also have nano-structures that provide colour,but the Callophrys Rubi has one important difference.

“This butterfly’s wing contains an immense array of interconnected nano-scale coiled springs that form a unique optical material. We used this concept to develop our photonic crystal device,” researcher Dr Mark Turner,said.

Using 3D laser nano-technology,researchers built a photonic crystal with properties that don’t exist in naturally occurring crystals,specifically one that works with circular polarisation. This miniature device contains over 750,000 tiny polymer nano-rods.

The photonic crystal acts as a miniature polarising beam splitter which is used in modern technology – such as telecommunications,microscopy and multimedia – are built from naturally occurring crystals,which work for linearly polarised light but not circularly polarised light.

“We believe we have created the first nano-scale photonic crystal chiral beam splitter,” Director of the Centre for Micro-Photonics at Swinburne,Professor Min Gu,said.

“It has the potential to become a useful component for developing integrated photonic circuits that play an important role in optical communications,imaging,computing and sensing.

“The technology offers new possibilities for steering light in nano-photonic devices and takes us a step closer towards developing optical chips that could overcome the bandwidth bottleneck for ultra-high speed optical networks,” said Gu.

The study was published in the journal Nature Photonics.