Brochosome-Inspired Metal-Containing Particles as Biomimetic Building Blocks for Nanoplasmonics: Conceptual Generalizations

Abstract

Recently, biological nanostructures became an important source of inspiration for plasmonics, with many described implementations and proposed applications. Among them are brochosome-inspired plasmonic microstructures—roughly spherical core-shell particles with submicrometer diameters and with indented surfaces. Our intention was to start from the nanoplasmonic point of view and to systematically classify possible alternative forms of brochosome-inspired metal-containing particles producible by the state-of-the-art nanofabrication. A wealth of novel structures arises from this systematization of bioinspired metal-containing nanocomposites. Besides various surface nanoapertures, we consider structures closely related to them in electromagnetic sense like surface nano-protrusions, shell reliefs obtained by nano-sculpting, and various combinations of these. This approach helped us build a new design toolbox for brochosome-inspired structures. Additionally, we used the finite elements method to simulate the optical properties of simple brochosome-inspired structures. We encountered a plethora of advantageous optical traits, including enhanced absorption, antireflective properties, and metamaterial behavior (effective refractive index close to zero or negative). We conclude that the presented approach offers a wealth of traits useful for practical applications. The described research represents our attempt to outline a possible roadmap for further development of bioinspired nanoplasmonic particles and to offer a source of ideas and directions for future research.

Synergy between AI and Optical Metasurfaces: A Critical Overview of Recent Advances

“…Among the examples are biological morphological structures based on Turing patterns utilizing the reaction-diffusion principle, as described in his seminal paper "The chemical basis of morphogenesis" [371]. Such structures, which are widespread throughout the living world, have been used to produce optical metasurfaces [372] and other nanopatterned functional photonic structures [373].…”

Nanostructure‐Derived Antireflectivity in Leafhopper Brochosomes

“…In a recent study, Yang et al [ 14 ] prepared synthetic brochosomes from colloidal templates and were able to tune the pit diameter to height ratios and the relative sizes of the brochosomal spheres to pit dimensions, observing that electrodeposited arrays of silver brochosomes exhibit appreciable antireflectivity. Despite this recent progress and theoretical work exploring the design space of brochosome‐inspired [ 15 ] particle morphologies, we lack a full understanding of the mechanism of antireflectivity in brochosomes and how it depends on their internal structure and spatial organization.…”

“…Brochosomes are hollow, spherical nanostructures with diameters of hundreds of nanometers produced by leafhoppers (Hemiptera; Cicadellidae). Brochosome-inspired synthetic nanostructures were recently investigated for applications as antireflective coatings, [14][15][16][17] although it is not known to what extent natural brochosomes exhibit these properties and whether they have biological significance. Brochosomes have a cage-like morphology with pentagonal and hexagonal faces defined by struts surrounding open pits.…”

Nanostructure-derived anti-reflectivity in leafhopper brochosomes

“…Brochosomes are hollow, spherical nanostructures with diameters of hundreds of nanometers produced by leafhoppers (Hemiptera; Cicadellidae). Brochosomeinspired synthetic nanostructures were recently investigated for applications as anti-reflective coatings [14][15][16][17] , although it is not known to what extent natural brochosomes exhibit these properties and whether they have biological significance. Brochosomes have a cage-like morphology with pentagonal and hexagonal faces defined by struts surrounding open pits.…”

“…[14] prepared synthetic brochosomes from colloidal templates and were able to tune the pit diameter to height ratios and the relative sizes of the brochosomal spheres to pit dimensions, observing that electrodeposited arrays of silver brochosomes exhibit appreciable anti-reflectivity. Despite this recent progress and theoretical work exploring the design space of brochosome-inspired [15] particle morphologies, we lack a full understanding of the mechanism of anti-reflectivity in brochosomes and how it depends on their internal structure and spatial organization.…”