Photonic structures in photosynthetic systems: beyond colour production in biomimetic photonics.
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Photonic structures in photosynthetic systems: beyond colour production in biomimetic photonics.
Mon, 14/11/2016 - 12:45
Location:
Speaker:
Dr Martin Lopez-Garcia
Affiliation:
University of Bristol
Synopsis:
Nature has been an inspiration in optics developments for centuries. Therefore, it is not surprising that natural photonic structures have been studied at length during the last decades, for example the paradigmatic case of wavelength-scale structure in some butterfly wings. However, considerations of the interplay between these structures and their function in insects, animals and plants has been limited mainly to producing colour. But of course light has more functionality than changing appearance, particularly in plant photosynthesis. Overcoming this gap is of fundamental importance to obtaining the breakthroughs expected from biomimetic technologies. In this talk I will focus on natural photonic systems whose functionalities produce a direct or indirect effect on photosynthesis. I will present my recent research on several organisms, including plants and algae, where a clear relationship between photosynthesis and intracellular photonic structures is observed. An illustrate example are the photosynthetic photonic structures used by tropical begonias to survive in dark environments [1]. I will show that this structures use novel tissue morphologies at nano and microscale to developed sophisticated photonic properties for enhanced light harvesting. I will finish presenting my future research plans to mimic plant light harvesting functionalities with available or up-and-coming manufacturing technologies such as polymer-based and molecular photonics.
[1] M. Jacobs, M. Lopez-Garcia, O.-P Phrathep, T. Lawson, R. Oulton and H. Whitney, Photonic crystal structure of Begonia chloroplasts enhances photosynthetic efficiency. Nat. Plants, 2, 1–16 (2016).
[2] M. Lopez-Garcia, J.F. Galisteo-Lopez, A. Blanco, J. Sánchez-Marcos, A. Garcia-Martin and C. Lopez, Enhancement and Directionality of Spontaneous Emission in Hybrid Self-Assembled Photonic–Plasmonic Crystals. Small ,6, 1757–1761 (2010).
Biography:
Martin Lopez-Garcia obtained his BSc in Physics with a specialization in Optoelectronics by the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain). In 2006 he joined the Institute for Material Science of Madrid (National Research Council of Spain, CSIC) to pursue a MSc followed by a PhD on self-assembled photonic crystals, also known as artificial opals, under the supervision of Prof. Cefe Lopez and Dr. Juan Galisteo-Lopez. Amongst other research he demonstrated the first example of a self-assembled photonic crystal with tailored plasmonic properties [2] and developed a microscattering spectroscopic technique for the study of micron size photonic structures. He moved to Bristol in 2012 to work as a Research Associate in the Photonics Group with Prof John Rarity and Dr. Ruth Oulton on the development of new photonic structures suitable for emission devices with polarization control. This photonic structures, in many cases inspired by those find in butterflies wings and beetles scales, lead to the fabrication of new three dimensional polymeric lattices. His current research areas include understanding and mimicking mechanisms and functionalities of intracellular photonic structures in nature. In particular he is interested in those in photosynthetic organisms such as plants and algae. Recently, in collaboration with the School of Biological Sciences in Bristol, he demonstrated the first intracellular and intrinsically photosynthetic photonic structure in plants [1] attracting considerable attention from the public and the scientific community.