Photonic Crystal Properties of the Cuticle of Chrysina Resplendens Scarabs

Extensive radiative transfer calculations to fit the more significant average spectral features displayed in measured reflectance spectra by cuticles of Chrysina resplendes scarabs have been carried out. A simulated annealing approach is the starting point to optimize the values of the spatial average uric acid volume fraction, the thickness of the retarder layer located between the two left-handed chiral structures in the cuticle, and the slope of the parameter describing the variation with depth of the uric acid volume fraction through the retarder layer. Both twisted arrangements are characterized in terms of their photonic behaviors to display the variation with depth of the photonic band gaps, effective refractive index and birefringence, wave numbers and relative densities of states.