Shiny golden scarab beetles, whose shells are capable of reflecting light, will help physicists create ultra-fast data transmission systems.
For many years, world scientists have been studying the properties of so-called metamaterials - structures consisting of a large number of nanoparticles capable of interacting with light in an unusual way. Metamaterials are found on the wings of butterflies of "metallic" color, on the same shells of other insects, wings of birds, and even in blue folds on the faces of mandrill baboons. Physicists are confident that it is precisely metamaterials that can contribute to the creation of ultrafast light computers in the future.
Pete Vukusic of the University of Exeter in the UK and his team found that the most unusual example of a natural metamaterial is found on the wings of bright gold South American scarabs (Chrysina resplendens), according to an article in the Royal Society Interface magazine.
Back in the last century, physicist Albert Michelson made the discovery that light interacting with the shell of these scarabs always twists into a left-handed spiral when reflected. Many years later, Vukusic and his colleagues found that the reason for this was the structure of the beetle's shell, which is a super-complex metamaterial of many nanoparticles, no more than a micrometer in size. In this case, all the particles are turned in different directions, which turns the scarab shell into an ideal mirror that reflects not only sunlight, but also any form of polarized light. In this case, in the latter case, the light does not change direction and remains "swirling" in the same direction.
According to Vukusic, it is this property that will help physicists speed up the Internet several times faster by coding information about how the light is “twisted”. The scientist explained that experts have already been able to create installations that produce this type of light, but they are all too large, while a small scarab beetle will help reduce them to a microchip.
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