Structural color

Structural color

Structural colors are colors caused by interference effects rather[url=http://www.utsource.net/VCT3804B D6.html]VCT3804B D6[/url] than by pigments. Color effects are produced when a material is scored with fine parallel lines, formed of one or more parallel thin layers,MB4052 or otherwise composed of microstructures on the scale of the color's wavelength. If the microstructures are spaced randomly, light of shorter wavelengths will be scattered preferentiallyKA3084 to produce Tyndall effect colors: the blue of the sky (Rayleigh scattering, caused by structures much smaller than the wavelength of light, in this case air molecules), the luster of opals, and the bluea3986 of human irises. If the microstructures are aligned in arrays, for example the array of pits in a CD, they behave as a diffraction grating: the grating reflects different wavelengths in different directions due to interference phenomena,TA8271H separating mixed white light into light of different wavelengths. If the structure is one or more thin layers then it will reflect some wavelengths and transmit others, depending on the layers' thickness.