Abstract
Organisms are able to construct an array of optical "devices" including
diffuse scatterers, broadband reflectors, tunable photonic crystals and
mirrors by varying the size, morphology and arrangement of organic
crystals. These "devices" perform a variety of optical functions, such
as generating the white color of certain spiders, the metallic silvery
reflectance of fish scales, the brilliant iridescent colors of some
copepods, and mirrors used for vision in animal eyes. Scallops have tens
of eyes, each containing a concave multi-layered mirror tiled with a
mosaic of square guanine crystals. The mirror forms images on a
double-layered retina. Shrimp, crayfish and lobsters possess compound
eyes that also use reflective optics, and contain two sets of mirrors,
composed of a previously unknown biogenic crystal - isoxanthopterine.
The two mirrors have very different ultrastructures and functions that
we can rationalize in terms of the optical performance of the eye. In
all these examples, the hierarchical organization is controlled from the
component crystals at the nanoscale to the complex 3D morphology at the
millimeter level.
Israel Science Foundation.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | APS March Meeting 2018 |
State | Published - 2018 |
Externally published | Yes |
Event | APS March Meeting 2018 - Duration: 5 Mar 2018 → … |
Conference
Conference | APS March Meeting 2018 |
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Period | 5/03/18 → … |