Phys.org  March 18, 2024 The leafhoppers cover their body surfaces with brochosomes, buckyball-shaped, nanoscopic spheroids with through-holes distributed across their surfaces, representing a class of deployable optical materials that are rare in nature. A team of researchers in the US (University of Pennsylvania, Carnegie Mellon University) investigated the optical form-to-function relationship of brochosomes and demonstrated that the hierarchical geometries of brochosomes are engineered within a narrow size range with through-hole architecture to significantly reduce light reflection. They showed that the diameters of brochosomes are engineered to maximize broadband light scattering, while the secondary through-holes are designed to function as short-wavelength, […]