Optics of nanofabricated and biophotonic Gyroid materials

“Gyroid Photonics” refers to the field of nanooptics that exploits the spatial structure of the Gyroid geometry for optical properties and effects, in particular its chirality. There has been recent significant interest in the optical properties of Gyroid-like materials, motivated by their relevance to biophotonics and insect structural coloration, their use as metallic meta-materials or dielectric photonic crystals, multi-functional properties including structural integrity, and questions of topological optics and photonic Weyl points, and non-linear optics. What makes the gyroid particularly relevant are the multiple methods for generating it, at a variety of length scales and through methods that range from self-assembly to nanofabrication.

The Gyroid, or to be more precise the chiral single Gyroid, is a 3D labyrinth-like structure characterised by very high cubic symmetry, a particularly simple network structure and topology and a particularly high degree of spatial homogeneity. Its symmetry space group I4(-1)32 is chiral and the chirality is also manifest in the helix-like elements (in fact, the single gyroid can be represented, to a very good approximation, as a union of helices).

 

Our work formed part of the early forays into the field of gyroid photonics and established the nature of circular polarisation effects in these materials, through theoretical and computational efforts in parallel with experimental efforts to build nanofabricated 3D gyroid materials. We have since maintained a strong presence in that field, with contributions that relate to the following areas

Circular polarisation effects of Gyroid photonic materials

M. Saba, M. Thiel, M.D. Turner, S.T. Hyde, M. Gu, K. Grosse-Brauckmann, D.N. Neshev, G.E. Schröder-Turk, “Circular dichroism in biological photonic crystals and cubic chiral nets”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 103902 (2011)

M.D. Turner, G.E. Schröder-Turk and M. Gu, “Fabrication and characterization of three-dimensional biomimetic chiral composites”, Optics Express, 19(10), 10001-10008 (2011)

M. Saba, B.D. Wilts, J. Hielscher and G.E. Schröder-Turk, “Absence of circular polarization in reflections of butterfly wing scales with chiral Gyroid structure”, Materials Today: Proceedings 1, 193-208 (2014)

M. Saba and G.E. Schröder-Turk, “Block modes and evanescent modes of photonic crystals: weak form solutions based on accurate interface triangulation”, Crystals 5(1), 14-44 (2015)

Nanoengineered beamsplitter based on gyroid photonic material

M.D. Turner, M. Saba, Q.M. Zhang, B.P. Cumming, G.E. Schröder-Turk, M. Gu, “Miniature chiral beamsplitter based on gyroid photonic crystals”, Nature Photonics 7(10), 801-805 (2013)

M.D. Turner, M. Saba, Q. Zhang, B.P. Cumming, G.E. Schröder-Turk, and M. Gu, “A chiral beamsplitter inspired by butterfly nanostructures”, Frontiers in Optics, post-deadline paper, doi: 10.1364/FIO.2013.FW6A.3 (2013)

Nanofabrication from multiple materials: polymer resin, high-refractive index chalcogenide and silver

B.P. Cumming, M.D. Turner, G.E. Schröder-Turk, S. Debbarma, B. Luther-Davies and M. Gu, “Adaptive optics enhanced direct laser writing of high refractive index gyroid photonic crystals in chalcogenide glass”, Optics Express 22, 689-698 (2014)

B. Cumming, G.E. Schröder-Turk and M. Gu, “Metallic gyroids with broadband circular dichroism“, Optics Letters 43(4), 863-866 (2018)

M.D. Turner, G.E. Schröder-Turk and M. Gu, “Fabrication and characterization of three-dimensional biomimetic chiral composites”, Optics Express, 19(10), 10001-10008 (2011)

Butterfly optics and the question of optical signalling

M. Saba, B.D. Wilts, J. Hielscher and G.E. Schröder-Turk, “Absence of circular polarization in reflections of butterfly wing scales with chiral Gyroid structure”, Materials Today: Proceedings 1, 193-208 (2014)

Disordered gyroid optics

J. Hielscher, C. Pouya, P. Vukusic, G.E. Schröder-Turk, “Harmonic distortions enhance circular dichroism of dielectric single Gyroids“, Opt. Express 25(5), 5001-5017 (2017)

Group theory of gyroid-inspired optical materials

M. Saba, M.D. Turner, K. Mecke, M. Gu and G.E. Schröder-Turk, “Group theory of circular-polarization effects in chiral photonic crystals with four-fold rotation axes applied to the eight-fold intergrowth of gyroid nets”, Physical Review B 88(24), 245116 (2013)

M. Saba, M.D. Turner, M. Gu, K. Mecke, and G.E. Schröder-Turk, “Chiral Photonic Crystals with 4-fold Symmetry: Band Structure and S-Parameters of Eight-Fold Intergrown Gyroid Nets”, Proceedings of SPIE Vol 8923, 89233T-1 (2013)

Gyroid-inspired optical designs: Nanofabrication of poly-gyroid materials

B.P. Cumming, G.E. Schröder-Turk, S. Debbarma & M. Gu, “Bragg-mirror-like circular dichroism in bio-inspired quadruple-gyroid 4srs nanostructures“, Light: Science & Applications 6, e16192 (2017)

F. Turella, B. Cumming, G.E. Schröder-Turk, M. Gu, “Observation of optical activity in dielectric biomimetic 8-srs networks“, Optics Letters 40, 4795-4798 (2015)

Related chiral optics and biomimetic materials

M. Saba, A.-L. Robisch, M. Thiel, O. Hess and G.E. Schröder-Turk, “Sheet-like chiro-optical material designs : C(Y) surfaces“, ICBO17-63, Proc. SPIE 10340, International Conference on Biophotonics V, 1034015 (2017)

M.D. Turner, G.E. Schröder-Turk and M. Gu, “Biomimetic photonic materials by direct laser writing”, in ‘Laser Technology in Biomimetics’, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, pages 67-82 (2013)