BACKGROUND The pulses of light scatter and fluorescence measured in flow cytometers exhibit varying degrees of polarization. Flow cytometers are heterogeneously sensitive to this polarization, depending on the light source(s), the optical layout, and the types of mirrors and filters used. Therefore, fluorescence polarization can affect apparent intensity ratios between particles and interfere w...

We experimentally demonstrate controlled polarization-selective phenomena in a whispering gallery mode resonator. We observed efficient ( approximately 75%) polarization conversion of light in a silica microsphere coupled to a tapered optical fiber with proper optimization of the polarization of the propagating light. A simple model treating the microsphere as a ring resonator provides a good f...

We investigate polarization of high-energy emissions from the Crab pulsar in the frame work of the outer gap accelerator. The recent version of the outer gap, which extends from inside the null charge surface to the light cylinder, is used for examining the light curve, the spectrum and the polarization characteristics, simultaneously. The polarization position angle curve and the polarization ...

A complete polarization image sensor composed of a 60 by 20 pixel array with on-chip analog processing and integrated with pixel-pitch polymer polarization filter is presented. The image sensor, fabricated in 0.5m CMOS process, computes the first three Stokes parameters at the focal plane at 30fps with 15mW power consumption. The sensor is used to identify automatically material properties by ...

Animals that communicate using conspicuous body patterns face a trade-off between desired detection by intended receivers and undesired detection from eavesdropping predators, prey, rivals, or parasites. In some cases, this trade-off favors the evolution of signals that are both hidden from predators and visible to conspecifics. Animals may produce covert signals using a property of light that ...

Intuitively, light impinging on a spatially mirror-symmetric object will be scattered equally into mirror-symmetric directions. This intuition can fail at the nanoscale if the polarization of the incoming light is properly tailored, as long as mirror symmetry is broken in the axes perpendicular to both the incident wave vector and the remaining mirror-symmetric direction. The unidirectional exc...

In the retina of dusk-active European cockchafers, Melolontha melolontha, the linear polarization of downwelling light (skylight or light from the tree canopy) is detected by photoreceptors in upward-pointing ommatidia with maximal sensitivity at 520 nm in the green portion of the spectrum. To date no attempt has been made to answer the question of why these beetles detect polarization in the g...

This paper presents a model to describe the polarization patterns of celestial light, which includes sunlight and skylight, when refracted by wavy water surfaces. The polarization patterns and intensity distribution of refracted light through the wave water surface were calculated. The model was validated by underwater experimental measurements. The experimental and theoretical values agree wel...

The traditional Thomson scattering diagnostic is based on measurement of the wavelength spectrum of scattered light, where electron temperature measurements are inferred from thermal broadening of the spectrum. At sufficiently high temperatures, especially those predicted for ITER and other burning plasmas, relativistic effects cause a change in the degree of polarization (P) of the scattered l...

Möbius strips are three-dimensional geometrical structures, fascinating for their peculiar property of being surfaces with only one “side”—or, more technically, being “nonorientable” surfaces. Despite being easily realized artificially, the spontaneous emergence of these structures in nature is exceedingly rare. Here, we generate Möbius strips of optical polarization by tightly focusing the lig...