BIOIMIMICRY IN ENERGY: BUTTERFLY WINGS INSPIRED SOLAR CELL

Dr. Ronald Calhoun, Prabhu Koganti, Santosh Vemula

BACKGROUND

THEORETICAL ANALYSIS
The presence of structures on the surfaces that would
result in diffraction of light would actually increase the
absorption efficiency of the surface which is invaluable
to modern PV.
In the case of photovoltaics, the absorption of light is
given by:
= 1 ()
Absorption increases with reduced reflection which can
be achieved by including periodic structures on
photovoltaics surface.

Through biomimicry, humans utilize processes and designs

found in nature to improve technology. Many complex
natural architectures such as shells, bones, etc. have been
studied to adopt the design and improve the structural
properties of materials. This poster represents a study the
light trapping property of butterfly wings which helps in
retaining heat and the adoption of our findings to solar
energy technology.

1 sin 1 = 2 sin 2 =
m-order of diffraction
L-diffraction grading period
= +

The equation suggests that the light diffracted into a

semiconductor with a refractive index 2 , will only be
able to escape into air with a refractive index 1 = 1,
when
HOW IT WORKS?

EVOLUTION
Butterfly wings serves the following purposes:

Sophistically collects solar energy which helps butterfly

to stay warm.
Large enough to fly in rain, while smaller insects hurry
for cover.
Wings surface covered in overlapping scales so not to
retain water and become heavy.
Bend but do not collapse under the pressure of water
droplet.
WING STRUCTURE
The butterfly wing structure is a membrane enclosed by
scales both dorsally and ventrally. The scales are
overlapping and are usually Melanin and Chitin.
The scales have an overlapping structure similar to the
tiles of a roof. Each individual tile demonstrate much
complicated geometry of their own.
Each scale is comprised of evenly spaces inverse V ridges
separated by double rows stagger patterned rectangular
nano-holes array.

Light incident on these ridges comply with the

geometrical optical rules and due to the relatively
small vertex angles, nearly all incident light is reflected
by the oblique ridges, transferring it into the nano-hole
regions.
Even in case of light that is not incident normally, light
striking the inverse-V ridges undergoes multiple
reflections before finally being directed into the nanoholes.
Nano-holes array is comprised of two components- the
nano scale holes and the ribs which separate them.
These nano hole act similar to high band pass filters.
The ridges acts as refractive index digressive blocks
which results in the light incident on them being
backscattered with an attenuated intensity.
When incident light has a wavelength lower than the
holes, they are transmitted through the holes freely,
onto the underlying scale or onto the membrane
substrate, absorbed by it.
However, if the wavelength of the incident light is
significantly larger than the holes, the nano-holes and
the ridges separating them collectively act as a
medium with a very low effective refractive index.
If the ratio of the hole width to the incident lights
wavelength is close to 1, then it results in maximum
absorption due to resonance between the holes and
the incident light.

<1

The effective refractive index can be calculated

from solution of the photonic crystal equation:

1 1
= cos( ) cos( )

+
2
sin sin = cos( )
Ko- wave vector of the incident wave
Below is the x component of wave vectors in the ridges
and grooves.
2

= (

) ;

= ,

Kxr- wave vector of ridges (x-direction)

Kxg- wave vectors of grooves (x-direction)
Constructive interference and hence transmission can
through the grating is maximized when grating height is
equal to an odd integral multiple of:

It has been obtained that the optimum height for

silicon grating in air is 200nm.
The zeroth diffracted order tends to couple most
effectively to the grating modes when there are
few grating modes present.
Using this together with some impedance
matching considerations also allows the optimum
period, L, for the grating to be predicted, which is
around 650 nm.
This method can also be extended to rectangular
pillar diffraction gratings, in the case of which the
values of effective indices in the grating region are
approximated since there is no known analytical
solution for the modes in the grating region.
A number of solar cells exist, which have
incorporated photonic structures, some examples
include blazed gratings and rectangular gratings
and combined grating/Bragg stack.
Fabrication methods such as interference
lithography, micromolding and nanoimprinting
have made it considerably easy to fabricate such
structures.
CONCLUSION
Nature is the most advanced technology and often
sets benchmarks to invention.
It is clear that the nanostructures of butterfly wings
cannot be replicated with current available
technologies, however observing and studying
them provides an insight into how structures can
be used to trap light efficiently.
In recent times the ability to manufacture periodic
features on surfaces is been done with
considerable ease and this has inspired a modern
photovoltaics to take advantage of grating
structures to trap available light.
In future, it is expected that these nano structures
can be replicated and perhaps even improved as
we push the capabilities of fabrication
technologies.
REFERENCES
1. Solar energy international, energy facts.
http://www.solarenergy.org/resources/energyfacts.ht
ml.
2. Art of blackness in butterfly wings as natural solar
collector
Qibin Zhao, Xingmei Guo, Tongxiang Fan, Jian Ding, Di
Zhang and Qixin Guo
3. Nanotechnology for Photovoltaics
By Loucas Tsakalakos