IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v396y1998i6706d10.1038_23838.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Coherent light scattering by blue feather barbs

Author

Listed:
  • Richard O. Prum

    (Natural History Museum
    Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and)

  • Rodolfo H. Torres

    (Mathematics, University of Kansas)

  • Scott Williamson

    (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and)

  • Jan Dyck

    (Institute of Population Biology, Universitetsparken 15)

Abstract

The structural colours of avian feather barbs are created by the scattering of light from the spongy matrix of keratin and air in the medullary layer of the barbs1,5. However, the precise physical mechanism for the production of these colours is still controversial1,3,4,6. Here we use a two-dimensional (2D) Fourier analysis of the spatial variation in refractive index of the blue feather barbs of the plum-throated cotinga (Cotinga maynana, Cotingidae) to show that the colour is produced by constructive interference between light waves scattered coherently by the nanostructured keratin-air matrix of the barbs.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard O. Prum & Rodolfo H. Torres & Scott Williamson & Jan Dyck, 1998. "Coherent light scattering by blue feather barbs," Nature, Nature, vol. 396(6706), pages 28-29, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:396:y:1998:i:6706:d:10.1038_23838
    DOI: 10.1038/23838
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/23838
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/23838?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ahmet F. Demirörs & Erik Poloni & Maddalena Chiesa & Fabio L. Bargardi & Marco R. Binelli & Wilhelm Woigk & Lucas D. C. Castro & Nicole Kleger & Fergal B. Coulter & Alba Sicher & Henning Galinski & Fr, 2022. "Three-dimensional printing of photonic colloidal glasses into objects with isotropic structural color," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:396:y:1998:i:6706:d:10.1038_23838. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.