title: Biologically inspired achromatic waveplates for visible light.
abstract: Waveplates are planar devices used in optics and optoelectronics to change the polarization state of light. Made of anisotropic dielectric materials such as crystals and thin films, waveplates are not known to exhibit achromatic performance over the visible regime. Inspired by the microvillar structure of R8 cells functioning as polarization converters in the eyes of stomatopod crustaceans, we conceived, designed, fabricated and tested periodically multilayered structures comprising two different types of arrays of nanorods. Morphologically analogous to the ocular cells, here we show that the periodically multilayered structures can function as achromatic waveplates over the visible regime.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electro-Optical Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei 106, Taiwan. jyjun@ntut.edu.tw
authors.forename: Yi-Jun
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Jen
authors.forename: Akhlesh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lakhtakia
authors.forename: Ching-Wei
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Chia-Feng
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Meng-Jie
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Shih-Hao
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Jyun-Rong
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Lai
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D040761:Biomimetic Materials; D003445:Crustacea; D008027:Light; D008871:Microvilli; D049329:Nanostructures; D055095:Optics and Photonics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D017956:Photoreceptor Cells, Invertebrate / Q000166:cytology