O'Brien W J
Department of Biomaterials, School of Dentistry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 48109-1078, USA.
J Dent Res. 1988 Feb;67(2):484-6. doi: 10.1177/00220345880670021001.
Fraunhofer diffraction patterns of human enamel samples were photographed with a helium-neon laser beam (lambda = 633 nm). The first-order diffraction angle was in reasonable agreement with a prediction based upon enamel prisms acting as a two-dimensional grating. These results support the hypothesis that enamel diffracts light because of the periodic structure of enamel prisms with interprismatic spaces, which act as slits.
