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Polarization of light reflected from the silvery exterior of the bleak, Alburnus alburnus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

E. J. Denton
Affiliation:
The Plymouth Laboratory
J. A. C. Nicol
Affiliation:
The Plymouth Laboratory

Extract

A method is described for measuring, for various angles of incidence, the polarization produced by reflexions from natural surfaces.

This method was tested by measurements on matallic surfaces of known properties and then used to study reflexions from the silvery gill cover of the bleak Alburnus alburnus (L.).

Althouth the reflecting surfaces of the gill cover are crystals of a dielectric guanine, there is no polarizing angle, and the reflecting properties of the gill cover resemble those of a sputtered aluminium mirror

The biological significance of these results is briefly discussed.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1965

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References

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