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Communication
Butterfly wing hears the sound: acoustic
detection using biophotonic nanostructure
Lingye Zhou, Jiaqing He, Wenzhuo Li, Peisheng He, Qinxian Ye, Benwei
Fu, Peng Tao, Chengyi Song, Jianbo Wu, Tao Deng, and Wen Shang
Nano Lett., Just Accepted Manuscript • DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.9b00468 • Publication Date (Web): 18 Mar 2019
Downloaded from http://pubs.acs.org on March 19, 2019

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Page 1 of 23 Nano Letters

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Butterfly wing hears the sound: acoustic detection
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using biophotonic nanostructure
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16 Lingye Zhou^, Jiaqing He^, Wenzhuo Li, Peisheng He, Qinxian Ye, Benwei Fu, Peng Tao,
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19 Chengyi Song, Jianbo Wu, Tao Deng*, Wen Shang*
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22 State Key Laboratory of Metal Matrix Composites, School of Materials Science and
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24 Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dong Chuan Road, Shanghai 200240, P. R.
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China
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34 ABSTRACT: The biophotonic nanostructures of Morpho butterfly wing display iridescent colors
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36 through the combined effect of light diffraction and interference. These nanostructures have
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38 attracted wide attention due to their high optical sensitivity and deformable material properties,
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and have been applied to various infrared (IR), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and pH
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43 sensors. This work explores the application of such biophotonic nanostructures of butterfly wing
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45 for acoustic detection and voice recognition. The pressure variation of the acoustic waves induces
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47 the vibration of butterfly wing diaphragm, resulting in the periodical change of reflectance. The
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50 integrated butterfly wing-based acoustic sensor shows high fidelity in replicating the original
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52 acoustic signals. The sensor also demonstrates promise in distinguishing human voice, which
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54 provides an alternative approach for voice recognition.
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3 KEYWORDS: Biophotonic structure, Morpho butterfly wing, acoustic detection, voice
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6 recognition
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11 Through billions of years of evolution, nature has created many different biological systems that
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13 possess unique structures and properties. The biophotonic nanostructures are among the genius
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16 creations by nature1, 2. Compared with conventional pigment, biophotonic nanostructures are
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18 usually more energy efficient in generating bright colors3. The Morpho butterfly wings, among all
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20 the natural photonic structures, catch the most attention due to their distinct hierarchical
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23 nanostructure and highly sensitive optical response to external stimuli, including infrared (IR)4, 5,
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25 volatile organic compounds (VOCs)6-8, and pH9. The surface of the Morpho butterfly wing is
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27 covered with iridescent scales, which are composed of the network of longitudinal tree-shaped
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ridges. Such nanostructured ridges induce the iridescent color through both light diffraction and
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32 interference10, 11. Meanwhile, the butterfly wings possess low elastic modulus (~7.5 GPa2, 12) that
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34 enable large structural deformation when they receive external stimuli. Such deformation can
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36 induce sensitive color variation, which can be easily detected by a photodetector3. Inspired by the
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39 biophotonic structures of butterfly wing, researchers designed various butterfly wing-based
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41 sensors. For example, Pris et al.4 designed a highly sensitive IR sensor by depositing single-walled
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43 carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) on Morpho sulkowski butterfly wings, whose reflective spectra
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46 would change with the thermal expansion of the nanostructures. Potyrailo et al.7, 13 developed an
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48 optical gas sensor based on the selective vapor response of butterfly wings. He et al.14 developed
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50 a butterfly wing based hydrogen gas sensor by modifying the wing with Pd nanostrips, which can
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absorb a large amount of H2 to induce expansion of the nanostrips. Yang et al.9 reported a strategy
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55 to fabricate pH-tunable photonic crystals of hierarchical structures by combining the Morpho
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3 butterfly wings with a pH-responsive polymer. Combined with other materials to improve
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6 physicochemical properties, the butterfly wing can be applied to various devices, presenting great
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8 potential for future applications in many fields11, 14-16. There is, however, no exploration of the
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10 application of butterfly wing based sensors for the detection of acoustic waves.
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15 Acoustic waves play significant roles in communication and information transfer. In nature,
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17 many creatures have been effectively using acoustic waves in signal exchange, courtship, and
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location. Acoustic waves are also widely applied in many areas of industrial engineerings, such as
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22 nondestructive detection, power system monitoring, environmental surveillance, positioning, and
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24 navigation17. Acoustic waves also find their roles in the artificial intelligence (AI) and a broader
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26 range of voice recognition as well as the advanced wireless communication18. Motivated by these
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29 applications, acoustic sensors with high sensitivity in a wide frequency span are being
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31 continuously pursued. Conventional acoustic sensors, such as microphones, are based on
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33 capacitive, piezoelectric or electromagnetic sensing mechanism and usually rely on the motion of
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a suspended diaphragm with electrical readout17, 18. Compared with these conventional acoustic
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38 sensors, acoustic sensors that are based on optical readout possess many advantages, such as anti-
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40 electromagnetic interference, high signal-to-noise ratio, remote monitoring, fast response, compact
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size, and low cost19-22. Moreover, with the increased application of various optical sensors and
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45 optical transmission devices in the modern integrated systems or intelligent machines, the optical
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47 acoustic sensors can be easily coordinated with other devices, presenting great potential in the
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49 wide range of acoustic sensing applications23.
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3 In optical acoustic sensing, interferometric acoustic sensors based on multilayer graphene24 or
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6 nanolayer silver diaphragms25-27 have been demonstrated to exhibit high dynamic acoustic pressure
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8 sensitivity28-30. Besides, the acoustic responses of fiber Bragg grating based acoustic sensors are
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10 proved to be comparable to that of commercial microphones31, 32. These two types of optical
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acoustic sensors, however, require relatively complex demodulating systems to analyze light
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15 wavelength and phase within a certain range20, 33, 34. At the same time, the optical acoustic sensors
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17 based on light reflection receive extensive attention for their simplicity, without the need of phase
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or wavelength analysis35. These reflective acoustic sensors take advantage of the deformation of
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22 reflective film induced by the acoustic wave, which leads to the intensity change of reflected light,
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24 for the detection of acoustic signals36, 37. The reflective film, also known as diaphragm, plays an
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26 essential role in the reflective acoustic sensor. In such acoustic sensor, this diaphragm is expected
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29 to have high reflectivity and optical sensitivity. Moreover, this film should also have proper
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31 mechanical properties to generate large deformation and flat response (<10 dB variation18) in a
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33 wide frequency range38.
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38 Some commonly used diaphragms, such as metallic films, are usually difficult to deform, while
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40 some others, such as organic films, tend to have features of low reflectivity. Here, we show that
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the biophotonic structures of iridescent Morpho butterfly wings can be both deformable and highly
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45 reflective, and provide great potential for the detection of acoustic waves. The butterfly wings can
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47 generate large deformation under the pressure variation of acoustic waves owing to the low elastic
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49 modulus, and have enough tensile strength to self-support. Meanwhile, the hierarchical photonic
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52 structures give Morpho butterfly wings high reflectivity and optical sensitivity due to the combined
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54 effect of light diffraction and interference. Furthermore, since the upper limit of the frequency
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3 response is controlled by the mass density of the diaphragm18, the thin thickness of the Morpho
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6 butterfly wings (only several micrometers) allows for the detection of sound vibration at high
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8 frequency.
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In this article, a Morpho butterfly wing-based integrated acoustic sensing device is designed and
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15 demonstrated. The acoustic signals are detected and converted to optical signals based on the
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17 reflectance variation of the butterfly wing. The butterfly wing-based sensor can replicate the
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original acoustic waves with high fidelity, including both frequency and intensity level of the
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22 sound. The sensor shows linear relationship between acoustic pressure and voltage amplitude, as
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24 well as relatively flat frequency response (<10 dB variation). Moreover, this butterfly wing-based
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26 acoustic sensor also demonstrates high fidelity when transmitting complex amplitude modulated
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29 (AM) waves. Such a quality can be utilized to recognize the human voice, whose acoustic profiles
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31 are also complicated. By detecting the human voice using the butterfly wing-based acoustic sensor,
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33 we show that the differentiation among different pronunciations is feasible. Besides the content,
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the butterfly wing-based acoustic sensor is also able to identify the speaker with the corresponding
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38 gender. Equipped with these features, the butterfly wing-based acoustic sensor potentially can
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40 provide a practical and straightforward strategy in various voice recognition applications. In a
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broader sense of view, this study is the first time to adapt biological structure in acoustic sensing,
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45 opening the door for the development of high-quality bio-inspired acoustic sensors.
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49 Butterfly Wing-based Acoustic Sensor. The Morpho sulkowskyi butterfly wings were used for
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52 testing the acoustic waves. When the butterfly wing was exposed to the acoustic wave, the wing
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54 vibrated due to the acoustic pressure variation. This continuous vibration resulted in the alteration
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3 of the relative position between the biophotonic structures and the light source, leading to the
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6 intensity oscillation of the reflected light, which could be detected by a photodetector (Figure 1a).
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8 The stereo optical microscope image in Figure 1b shows the wing scales align orderly on the
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10 surface of the wing, with a length of around 200 μm and a width of about 50 μm for a single scale.
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The cross-sectional view of the scales observed under the scanning electron microscope (SEM)
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15 shows the detailed hierarchical structure (Figure 1c). A 220 nm-thick base plane supports the tree-
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17 shaped ridges through trabeculae. These ridges are composed of 50-120 nm wide vertical stems
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and several layers of horizontal lamellae, which are periodically arranged on both sides of the
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22 stems. The thickness of each lamellae layer is around 65 nm, and the space between them is about
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24 150 nm. When light is incident on the wing scales, the lamellae produce multilayer interference,
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26 and the parallel ridges produce light diffraction. These two optical phenomena are combined to
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29 generate the iridescent effect14.
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41 Figure 1. The biophotonic structures for acoustic detection. (a) Schematic diagram of the reflective
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optical acoustic sensing based on Morpho butterfly wings. (b) Stereo optical microscope image of
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46 the wing surface. (c) SEM of the cross-section of the wing scale showing the ridges (R) are
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48 supported on the base plane through the trabeculae (T).
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54 As shown in Figure 2a, a piece of Morpho butterfly wing with size of ~7 × 7 mm2 was
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56 sandwiched between two stainless steel plates. The thickness for each steel plate is 0.5 mm and a
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3 through hole (5 mm in diameter) was cut at the center of the plate for the exposure of the butterfly
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6 wing to the incoming acoustic waves. The deformation of the butterfly wing was simulated by
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8 Finite Element Method12 (FEM) and the simulation result is shown in the supporting information
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10 (Figure S1). With its low elastic modulus (~7.5 GPa12), theoretically the butterfly wing (5 mm in
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diameter) can generate deformation with the center displacement as high as 6.025 μm under 1 Pa
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15 pressure. Figure 2b shows the experiment setup used for testing acoustic sensing properties of the
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17 butterfly wing. Sound with desired frequencies and intensity levels were generated by a speaker,
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which was stimulated by amplified voltage signals using a signal generator and a power amplifier.
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22 During the measurement, the speaker was faced towards the butterfly wing, with a distance of 10
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24 cm. The acoustic pressure was measured by a sound level meter. The reflectance of the butterfly
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26 wing was obtained using a bifurcated reflective optical fiber detector towards the iridescent
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29 surface. After converting the collected reflected light to electric signals, the photodetector
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31 transmitted these signals to an oscilloscope, which could display and export the acoustic signals.
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Figure 2. Butterfly wing-based acoustic sensor. (a) Schematic illustration of the butterfly wing
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51 diaphragm sandwiched between two stainless steel plates. (b) Schematic diagram of the
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3 Optical Response and Acoustic Sensing Performance of Morpho Butterfly Wings. Different
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6 from chromatic materials, the Morpho butterfly wing produces the iridescent color by its
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8 hierarchical photonic structures39-41. Figure 3a shows the reflectance spectrum of the Morpho
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10 butterfly wing. The main reflection peak is around 460 nm. To investigate the changes of
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reflectance when the butterfly wing vibrated under the exposure to the acoustic wave, we measured
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15 the differential reflectance spectrum4 according to Equation (1):
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∆𝑅(𝜆) = [ ] × 100%
𝑅(𝜆)
𝑅0(𝜆) (1)
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20 where 𝑅0(𝜆) is the spectrum collected from the butterfly wing without vibration, and 𝑅(𝜆) is the
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23 spectrum collected during vibration. A typical differential reflectance spectrum of the butterfly
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25 wing exposed to the acoustic wave (200 Hz, 100 dB) is presented in Figure S2, which indicates
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27 that the higher optical sensitivity is in the range from 440 nm to 600 nm, with a maximum
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30 sensitivity at approximately 520 nm. This selective sensitivity should be originated from the
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32 hierarchical photonic structures, which produced light interference and diffraction at a structure
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34 dependent wavelength. When the butterfly wing vibrated, the tree-shaped nanostructures might
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generate deformation including bending and tilt, which would lead to the shift of reflection peak.
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39 Such deformation of the photonic structures produced the higher optical sensitivity within 440 nm
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41 to 600 nm in the differential reflectance spectrum. The dynamic optical response was acquired by
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43 measuring the reflectance alteration at a fixed wavelength. Figure 3b shows the time sequence of
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46 the reflectance change of the butterfly wing at 500 nm wavelength under a 30 Hz acoustic wave
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48 (90 dB), which demonstrated the correlation between the optical response of the butterfly wing
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50 and the frequency of acoustic wave. The data were collected every 8 ms and a sinusoidal dynamic
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Reflectance spectrum of the Morpho butterfly wing surface. (b) Dynamic optical response of the
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56 Morpho butterfly wing at 500 nm wavelength with the exposure to an acoustic wave (30 Hz, 90
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3 dB). (c) The time-domain voltage output of the butterfly wing-based acoustic sensor after FFT
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6 treatment (1000 Hz, 95 dB). (d) The spectrum of frequency-domain analysis of the voltage output
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8 in Figure 3c. (e) Voltage amplitude versus acoustic pressure at 1000 Hz. (f) Frequency responses
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10 of the butterfly wing-based acoustic sensor at 95 dB.
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16 The key indicator for a high-quality acoustic sensor is the fidelity to replicate the original
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18 acoustic signals, including both frequency and intensity level of sound signals17. Figure 3c-f show
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20 that the butterfly wing-based acoustic sensor exhibits good fidelity in the acoustic signal detection.
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23 The 1 kHz frequency acoustic signal with the intensity level at 95 dB was used to demonstrate the
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25 sensing performance. Figure 3c presents a time-domain voltage output acquired from the butterfly
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27 wing-based acoustic sensor, which shows a typical sinusoidal alternating signal. To eliminate the
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high-frequency noise signals from the electronic instrument and connecting cables, we applied a
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32 fast Fourier transform (FFT) filter to process the output signals42. When the FFT filter frequency
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34 is higher than the acoustic wave frequency, it only removes the high-frequency noise and retains
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36 the signals resulted from the acoustic wave. The FFT filter slightly adjusted the amplitude of the
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39 voltage output but did not change the frequency (Figure S3). Processed by the FFT filter, the
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41 voltage output had an amplitude as high as 17 mV. Each period of the voltage output lasted 1 ms,
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48 The above time-domain voltage output shows the dynamic responses of optical singal from
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50 butterfly wing. Though exhibiting the profile vividly and intuitively, it is difficult to describe the
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signals precisely with the time-domain plot. Fast Fourier transform (FFT) analysis can break down
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3 description of the acquired signals in the frequency domain, we can analyze the frequency
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6 components of the sound. Figure 3d shows the outcome of the FFT analysis of the voltage output
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8 in Figure 3c. One sharp peak appeared at the 1 kHz position with the peak intensity value of 56.4
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up at the multiples of the acoustic wave frequency (i.e., 2 kHz, 3 kHz) if extending the frequency
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22 The sound intensity level of the acoustic wave can be derived from the amplitude of the voltage
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24 output, which originates from the vibration amplitude of the butterfly wing affected by the acoustic
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26 pressure. Figure 3e shows the variation of voltage amplitude with the change of acoustic pressure
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29 at the same frequency (1 kHz). The acoustic pressure can be acquired by Equation (2):
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31 𝑃 = 𝑃0 ∙ 10𝐿𝑝/20 (2)
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where P is the acoustic pressure, P0 is the reference pressure of 0.00002 Pa and Lp is the sound
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36 intensity level in decibel17. As the acoustic pressure changed from 20 mPa to 2000 mPa (sound
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38 intensity from 60 dB to 100 dB), the voltage amplitude varied from 0.4 mV to 56 mV. The voltage
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40 amplitude showed a linear relationship with the acoustic pressure, which indicated good acoustic
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43 sensing stability. During the study, there was approximately 48 dB background noise from the
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45 testing environment, which was produced by the electronic instruments, including the light source,
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47 signal generator, power amplifier, and oscilloscope. The minimum detectable sound pressure was
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therefore limited to around 50 dB. Such minimum detectable sound pressure should be lower if a
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52 sound isolator is used. The sound intensity level of normal human conversation is about 60 dB,
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6 The flatness of frequency response is another commonly used indicator for an acoustic sensor18.
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8 The effect of acoustic frequency on the voltage output was examined by maintaining the acoustic
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10 pressure at the same intensity level (95 dB) while varying the frequency. Limited by the working
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frequency span of the speaker and the sound level meter, the responses to acoustic frequency in
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15 the range from 200 Hz to 4500 Hz were studied. Figure 3f shows the acoustic sensitivity of
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17 butterfly wing to sound waves with different frequencies. The sensitivity is acquired by Equation
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(3):
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25 where V is the amplitude of voltage output and P is the acoustic pressure15. In the 200 Hz to
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27 4500 Hz frequency range, the sensitivity of the butterfly wing acoustic sensor fluctuated around
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29 20 dB and showed a relatively flat response (within 10 dB18). The maximal sensitivity was obtained
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near 1500 Hz. It is known that the usable voice frequency band in telephony to carry sound signals
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34 ranges from approximately 300 Hz to 3400 Hz. The working frequency range of the butterfly wing-
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36 based acoustic sensor thus can cover the frequency range of the human voice, providing high
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potential in voice recognition.
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43 Complex Acoustic Wave Detection. The butterfly wing-based acoustic sensor showed good
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45 sensing performance for acoustic waves with single-frequency. In real life, however, most acoustic
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48 signals contain multiple frequency components or modulated waves. Therefore, the ability to
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50 identify complex waves is critical for acoustic sensors. Here, we took an amplitude modulated
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52 (AM) acoustic wave as an example to demonstrate that the butterfly wing-based acoustic sensor
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also has the ability to distinguish complex waves. We modulated a 1 kHz carrier sinusoidal wave
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3 with a 200 Hz sinusoidal wave (90% amplitude modulation) and broadcast the mixed acoustic
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6 signals to the butterfly wing (Figure 4a). The voltage output (Figure 4b) acquired from the butterfly
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8 wing-based acoustic sensor accurately replicated the signal generated by the signal generator,
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10 which showed that this acoustic sensor could detect complex waves with high fidelity.
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15 After establishing the capability in the detection of both single and complex acoustic waves
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17 using butterfly wing-based acoustic sensor, we further explored the possibility of using such sensor
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to recognize the human voice. Human voice recognition is an essential issue in intelligence devices
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22 and remote control. Here we also demonstrated that the butterfly wing-based acoustic sensor can
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24 be used in human voice recognition. We chose the five long vowels ‘/ɑ:/, /ɜ:/, /i:/, /ɔ:/, /u:/’ in the
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26 demonstration. Figure 4c shows the voltage outputs of the five long vowels pronounced by a
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29 female, and Figure 4d shows the FFT-processed frequency outputs of the vowels. Each vowel has
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31 featured formants, which refer to the positions of intensified power in the frequency spectrum. The
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33 formants shown in Figure 4d matched well with the featured formants of the five long vowels
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reported in literature43, 44. Figure S4 in the supporting info provides the voltage outputs and FFT-
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38 processed frequency spectra of the same vowel ‘/ɑ:/’ pronounced by two persons with different
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40 genders. Interestingly, due to the voice difference between male and female, the detected signal
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outputs are different too, even for the same vowel pronunciation. The frequency of the initial peak
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45 in the acoustic profile produced by the male speaker is lower than that of the female. With the
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47 relative high fidelity and the capability in complex signal decoupling, butterfly wing-based
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49 acoustic sensor shows great potential to identify not only the content of the voice but also the voice
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3 based acoustic sensor. (c) Voltage outputs of the five long vowels ‘/ɑ:/, /ɜ:/, /i:/, /ɔ:/, /u:/’
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13 In conclusion, this work demonstrated for the first time the detection of acoustic signals using
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16 biophotonic structures from butterfly wings. The hierarchical optical structure with highly
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23 shows linear relationship between acoustic pressure and output voltage amplitude, and relatively
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25 flat frequency response. The testing of samples from different butterflies (same species) also
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27 showed relatively reproducible performance for the butterfly wing-based acoustic sensor (Figure
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S5). Using such butterfly wing-based acoustic sensor, recognition of complex waves, including
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32 human voice, was successfully demonstrated in this study, which provides a promising alternative
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34 approach for voice recognition. The selective optical sensitivity in the blue light wavelength range
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36 indicates that the sensing property may be further improved if a blue light source is used. The
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39 sensitivity of the butterfly wing-based acoustic sensor can also be enhanced by applying a
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41 photodetector with higher sensitivity and a lock-in amplifier33.
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ASSOCIATED CONTENT
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50 Supporting Information. Experimental section of the acoustic signals generation and
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52 measurement, the finite element simulation (FEM) of the deformation of the butterfly wing
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54 diaphragm with a radius of 2.5 mm under 1 Pa pressure, differential reflectance (ΔR) spectrum of
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3 the Morpho butterfly wing with the exposure to an acoustic wave (200 Hz, 100 dB), details of
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6 fast Fourier transform (FFT) treatment on voltage output, frequency-domain analysis of the
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8 voltage output for six smaples from two different butterflies (same species) stimulated by the
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10 acoustic signal at 1 kHz (95 dB), voltage output and the FFT-processed frequency spectrum of
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the vowel ‘/ɑ:/’ pronounced by a female and a male respectively. (PDF)
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18 AUTHOR INFORMATION
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21 Corresponding Author
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23 *E-mail: shangwen@sjtu.edu.cn; dengtao@sjtu.edu.cn
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Author Contributions
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29 L. Zhou and J. He contribute equally to this work. T. Deng and W. Shang conceived the idea and
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32 designed the experiments. L. Zhou, J. He, W. Li, P. He, Q. Ye, and B. Fu conducted the
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34 experiments. All the authors helped with data analysis, results discussion and the writing of the
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36 manuscript.
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42 Notes
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45 The authors declare no competing financial interest.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
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52 The authors thank the financial support from National Key R&D Program of China (No.
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2016YFB0402100), National Natural Science Foundation of China (51521004, 51420105009),
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3 the Zhi-Yuan Endowed fund from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The authors thank
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6 Instrumental Analysis Center of Shanghai Jiao Tong University for access to SEM.
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