Brink D J, Lee M E
Appl Opt. 1996 Apr 20;35(12):1950-5. doi: 10.1364/AO.35.001950.
Scales on the wings of certain insects, such as Trichoplusia orichalcea, exhibit a surface micro structure resembling a fine diffraction grating. Diffraction of incident light by this structure is responsible for many of the optical properties of the wings of this moth, such as the metallic yellow color and the almost-specular reflection and polarization properties of the scattered radiation. It is shown that by the use of null ellipsometry the polarization characteristics can be used to obtain the optical constants of the scale material. Theoretical considerations and suitable experimental conditions are discussed and evaluated.
某些昆虫翅膀上的鳞片，如粉纹夜蛾（Trichoplusia orichalcea）的鳞片，呈现出一种类似于精细衍射光栅的表面微观结构。这种结构对入射光的衍射作用，决定了这种蛾子翅膀的许多光学特性，比如金属黄色以及散射光几乎镜面反射和偏振特性。研究表明，通过使用消光椭偏仪，利用偏振特性可以获得鳞片材料的光学常数。文中讨论并评估了理论考量和合适的实验条件。
