A biological quarter-wave retarder with excellent achromaticity in the visible wavelength region
A biological quarter-wave retarder with excellent achromaticity in the visible wavelength region
复制标题
DOI：
10.1038/nphoton.2009.189
复制
发表时间：
2009-11-01
期刊：
影响因子：
35
通讯作者：
Cronin, T. W.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Roberts, N. W.;Chiou, T. -H.;Cronin, T. W.
动物利用丰富的光学物理来控制和操纵光，例如，在创建反射动物着色（1-3）和偏振光信号（4）。它们的精密光学器件在复杂性和效率方面往往超过同等的人造光学器件（5）。在这里，我们报告了一个生物物理机制，创造了一个自然的全可见光范围的消色差四分之一波长延迟器的口足类甲壳动物的眼睛。类似的人造延迟装置是重要的光学元件，用于科学研究和商业应用中以控制偏振光。典型的合成延迟器不是消色差的，并且更精细的设计，例如多层亚波长光栅或双晶结构，仅实现部分波长独立性（6）。在这项工作中，我们使用的感光器结构的实验测量和理论建模来说明如何一个新的相互作用的内在和形式的双折射的结果，在一个自然的消色差的光学显着优于目前的人造光学设备。
Animals make use of a wealth of optical physics to control and manipulate light, for example, in creating reflective animal colouration(1-3) and polarized light signals(4). Their precise optics often surpass equivalent man-made optical devices in both sophistication and efficiency(5). Here, we report a biophysical mechanism that creates a natural full-visible-range achromatic quarter-wave retarder in the eye of a stomatopod crustacean. Analogous, man-made retardation devices are important optical components, used in both scientific research and commercial applications for controlling polarized light. Typical synthetic retarders are not achromatic, and more elaborate designs, such as, multilayer subwavelength gratings or bicrystalline constructions, only achieve partial wavelength independence(6). In this work, we use both experimental measurements and theoretical modelling of the photoreceptor structure to illustrate how a novel interplay of intrinsic and form birefringence results in a natural achromatic optic that significantly outperforms current man-made optical devices.