title: Fraunhofer diffraction of light by human enamel.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomaterials, School of Dentistry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 48109-1078, USA.
authors.forename: W J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: O'Brien
mesh_terms: D055598:Chemical Phenomena; D002627:Chemistry, Physical; D003461:Crystallography; D003743:Dental Enamel / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D008027:Light; D055095:Optics and Photonics; D012031:Refractometry; D012542:Scattering, Radiation