Coloration strategies in peacock feathers
Open accessAbstract
We report the mechanism of color production in peacock feathers. We find that the cortex in differently colored barbules, which contains a 2D photonic-crystal structure, is responsible for coloration. Simulations reveal that the photonic-crystal structure possesses a partial photonic bandgap along the direction normal to the cortex surface, for frequencies within which light is strongly reflected. Coloration strategies in peacock feathers are very ingenious and simple: controlling the lattice constant and the number of periods in the photonic-crystal structure. Varying the lattice constant produces diversified colors. The reduction of the number of periods brings additional colors, causing mixed coloration.
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Most iridescent colorations in biology originate from intricate photonic structures in the surface that reflect selected wavelengths of incident light outwardly.
“Most iridescent colorations in biology originate from the intricate photonic structures in the surface (5–9), which reflect selected wavelengths of the incident light outwardly.”
From Light diffraction by sarcomeres produces iridescence in transmission in the transparent ghost catfish (2023) · cites this paper as [7]
The introduction describes structural coloration in nature, and Results and Discussion explains how a photonic structure in peacock feathers reflects particular frequencies and produces iridescence. The paper does not establish that this mechanism accounts for most iridescent coloration across biology. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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- [13]Prum, R. O. (1999) in Proceedings of the 22nd International Ornithological Congress , eds. Adams, N. J. & Slotow, R. H. (BirdLife South Africa, Johannesburg), pp. 1633-1653.
- [19]Joannoupoulos, J. D., Meade, R. D. & Winn, J. N. (1995) Photonic Crystals (Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton).
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- Authors
- Zi, J., Yu, X., Li, Y., Hu, X., Xu, C., Wang, X., Liu, X., & Fu, R.
- Affiliations
- Fudan University (CN)
- Surface Physics Laboratory (National Key Laboratory) and T-Center for Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, People's Republic of China
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2003-10-13
- Volume
- 100
- Issue
- 22
- Pages
- 12576-12578
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC240659
- OpenAlex
- W1972533342
- Cited by
- 588
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 23 · 2025: 34 · 2024: 36 · 2023: 31 · 2022: 38 · 2021: 34 · 2020: 44 · 2019: 35 · 2018: 46 · 2017: 37 · 2016: 36 · 2015: 24 · 2014: 26 · 2013: 20 · 2012: 31
- FWCI
- 4.76
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics › Photonic Crystals and Applications
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials › Metamaterials and Metasurfaces Applications
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cell Biology › melanin and skin pigmentation
- Keywords
- peacock feathers, structural color, photonic crystals, lattice parameters, color mixing, light reflection
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Birds, Feathers, Microscopy, Electron, Scanning, Microscopy, Interference, Pigmentation
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