LaBella et al. (1) claimed 92% spin polarization for electrons injected into gallium arsenide [GaAs(110)] from a Ni scanning tunneling microscope (STM) tip, which, they asserted, emitted 100% spin-polarized electrons. Such a claim, if substantiated, would constitute a development of great importance for the emerging field of spintronics: It would suggest that the field is rapidly closing in on ...

Chironomids (Diptera: Chironomidae; non-biting midges) are known to be carriers of the Vibrio cholerae bacterium, responsible for the fatal cholera disease in humans. It was recently discovered that chironomid females choose their oviposition site by a visual cue. In this study, we test the hypothesis that this visual cue is the linear polarization of light reflected from the water surface. We ...

Although the function of polarization vision, the ability to discern the polarization characteristics of light, is well established in many terrestrial and benthic species, its purpose in pelagic species (squid and certain fish and crustaceans) is poorly understood [1]. A long-held hypothesis is that polarization vision in open water is used to break the mirror camouflage of silvery fish, as bi...

Polarization sensitivity provides animals with information not available in the intensity or spectral domains. We examined the polarotaxis reactions in the epiplanktonic copepod Pontella karachiensis. Polarotaxis reactions were intensity dependent. At intensities corresponding to ambient daylight, P. karachiensis showed an attraction to a polarized light field; while at low intensities, corresp...

An ultracompact polarization beam splitter (PBS) is designed on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform based on the localized surface plasmons (LSPs) excited by particular polarization light. The device uses nanoscale silver cylinders as the polarization selection between two silicon waveguides of a directional coupler. The transverse-magnetic (TM) polarization light excites localized surface plas...

We study correlations among diierent components of the spectrum of the light intensity eld close to a pattern forming instability associated with the polarization of the light eld. In particular we nd strong correlations between opposite wavevectors of critical wavenumber and anticorrelations of the zero wavenumber and the critical one. These anticorrelations are a manifestation of nonlinear cr...

1532-Pos Board B302 Quantitative Scheme for Full-Field Polarization Rotating Fluorescence Microscopy (PROM) using a Liquid Crystal Variable Retarder John F. Lesoine. National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, USA. We present a quantitative scheme for full-field polarization rotating fluorescence microscopy (PROM). A quarter-wave plate, in combination with a liquid crystal...

Faraday rotators that employ the magneto-optic effect are ubiquitous across several optical device categories: including optical isolators, polarization controllers, and spatial light modulators. However, Faraday rotators are notoriously difficult to fabricate at small scales due to the high magnetic field strengths required to generate significant light polarization vector rotations. In this p...

Both attraction and repulsion from linearly polarized light have been observed in zooplankton. A dichotomous choice experiment, consisting of plankton light traps deployed in natural waters at a depth of 30 m that projected either polarized or unpolarized light of the same intensity, was used to test the hypothesis that the North Atlantic copepod, Calanus spp., is linearly polarotactic. In addi...