British scientists have discovered that butterfly wings are natural light emitting diodes

According to a latest research results show that in the development of light emitting diode (LED), scientists are far behind nature. Scientists found that the African swallowtail butterfly beautiful wings to deal with the principle of light and digital display principle similar.

According to the "life science", previously reported, African swallowtail butterfly wings with black background, studded with bright green and blue stripes. The researchers found that the African swallowtail butterfly wings are covered with tiny scales, which absorb ultraviolet light and then re launch it. The re emitted light interacts with the fluorescent pigments of the butterfly's wings, creating a bright bluish green. Long distance butterflies communicate with each other in this bright color. Light emitting diode

The light emitting diode was invented in the 60s of last century, and now can be seen everywhere in daily life, such as computer and television screens and traffic lights, etc.. But then the light-emitting diode is not very bright. Although they can produce a lot of light, but most of them are not trapped inside the device, that is, from the side of the divergence, the light has therefore become pale. Until the early 90s of the last century, engineers have been equipped with light emitting diodes to reflect and guide the light of a small mirror, was found to avoid the above problems. At the same time, the engineers also added some small holes inside the diode to prevent the light from being trapped.

African swallowtail butterfly wing scales on the optical microscope image

Butterfly wings -- the natural light emitting diode

When studying the African swallowtail butterfly, scientists found that there were a lot of similarities between the scales on the wings and the two levels.

Butterfly wings squamous covering contains some called "photonic crystal" (Photonic Crystals) of the micro structure, and the mechanism of the microporous and light emitting diode in very similar. In this regard, Exeter University expert Peter, one of the researchers said: "(the scales) can prevent the fluorescent light is trapped in the scales inside, but also can prevent the emitted sideways."

In addition, there is a special "mirror" below the scale, which is very similar to the tiny mirror in the led.

The study was published in the latest issue of the Journal science.