We proposed and investigated a family of multifunctional plasmonic biomimetic structures inspired by natural brochosome powders secreted by leafhoppers (insects from Cicadellidae family): spheres with diameters (600-1000) nm, with dielectric or hollow cores and golden shells perforated by subwavelength holes (30-100) nm in radius. We simulated ab initio their optical properties using the finite element method. We found that even in the simplest case (core-shells with only 6 nanoholes) our approach ensured the design of highly efficient omnidirectional ultra-antireflective diffractive powders. The reflectivity of 600 nm diameter perforated spheres did not exceed 2 in (500-600) nm range. We also discovered that planar arrays of our particles exhibited effective optical metamaterial behavior, including ultralow and negative refractive index at near-infrared wavelengths above 1000 nm. This rich optical behavior enhances the multifunctionality of our particles which can serve as antireflective, superhydrophobic and highly porous structures controllable by design. Potential practical impact includes their use in chemical sensing and biosensing, photodetection (antireflection,) photoelectrochemistry, photocatalysis, medical thermoplasmonics, general microoptoelectromechanical systems (MOEMS), etc. Our approach extends the range of possible designs, geometries and materials of brochosome-inspired microparticles. Thus we arrived at a new toolbox for the design of simple, highly customizable and versatile porous plasmonic particles.
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