Fine structure and optical properties of biological polarizers in crustaceans and cephalopods
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2008-03-24
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Tsyr-Huei Chiou, Roy L. Caldwell, Roger T. Hanlon, and Thomas W. Cronin "Fine structure and optical properties of biological polarizers in crustaceans and cephalopods", Proc. SPIE 6972, Polarization: Measurement, Analysis, and Remote Sensing VIII, 697203 (24 March 2008); doi: 10.1117/12.780061; https://doi.org/10.1117/12.780061
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Abstract
The lighting of the underwater environment is constantly changing due to attenuation by water, scattering by
suspended particles, as well as the refraction and reflection caused by the surface waves. These factors pose a great
challenge for marine animals which communicate through visual signals, especially those based on color. To escape this
problem, certain cephalopod mollusks and stomatopod crustaceans utilize the polarization properties of light. While the
mechanisms behind the polarization vision of these two animal groups are similar, several distinctive types of polarizers
(i.e. the structure producing the signal) have been found in these animals. To gain a better knowledge of how these
polarizers function, we studied the relationships between fine structures and optical properties of four types of polarizers
found in cephalopods and stomatopods. Although all the polarizers share a somewhat similar spectral range, around 450-
550 nm, the reflectance properties of the signals and the mechanisms used to produce them have dramatic differences. In
cephalopods, stack-plates polarizers produce the polarization patterns found on the arms and around their eyes. In
stomatopods, we have found one type of beam-splitting polarizer based on photonic structures and two absorptive
polarizer types based on dichroic molecules. These stomatopod polarizers may be found on various appendages, and on
the cuticle covering dorsal or lateral sides of the animal. Since the efficiencies of all these polarizer types are somewhat
sensitive to the change of illumination and viewing angle, how these animals compensate with different behaviors or fine
structural features of the polarizer also varies.