The optics of vertebrate photoreceptors: Anisotropy and form birefringence

N. W. Roberts

doi:10.1016/j.visres.2006.03.019

The optics of vertebrate photoreceptors: Anisotropy and form birefringence

N. W. Roberts

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

The optics of vertebrate photoreceptors have been investigated with specific reference to the effect of form birefringence. The complex dielectric tensor of the lamellar-like outer segment structure has been derived, allowing the transverse spectral absorbance to be calculated for different incident polarizations. These results were used to calculate the changes in the cellular dichroic ratio as a function of both the volume occupied by the bilayers and the real and complex parts of the intrinsic birefringence of the bilayers. Physiologically realistic values of these parameters show the cellular dichroic ratio to be greater than the bilayer dichroic ratio by a factor of ≈1.3. Furthermore, the calculations of spectral absorbance indicate that form birefringence may affect measurements of optical density in transversely orientated outer segments. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	3259-3266
Number of pages	7
Journal	Vision Research
Volume	46
Issue number	19
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.visres.2006.03.019
Publication status	Published - Oct 2006

Keywords

Form birefringence
Form dichroism
Microspectrophotometry
Optical modeling
Vertebrate photoreceptors

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10.1016/j.visres.2006.03.019

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title = "The optics of vertebrate photoreceptors: Anisotropy and form birefringence",

abstract = "The optics of vertebrate photoreceptors have been investigated with specific reference to the effect of form birefringence. The complex dielectric tensor of the lamellar-like outer segment structure has been derived, allowing the transverse spectral absorbance to be calculated for different incident polarizations. These results were used to calculate the changes in the cellular dichroic ratio as a function of both the volume occupied by the bilayers and the real and complex parts of the intrinsic birefringence of the bilayers. Physiologically realistic values of these parameters show the cellular dichroic ratio to be greater than the bilayer dichroic ratio by a factor of ≈1.3. Furthermore, the calculations of spectral absorbance indicate that form birefringence may affect measurements of optical density in transversely orientated outer segments. {\textcopyright} 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.",

keywords = "Form birefringence, Form dichroism, Microspectrophotometry, Optical modeling, Vertebrate photoreceptors",

author = "Roberts, {N. W.}",

year = "2006",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - The optics of vertebrate photoreceptors: Anisotropy and form birefringence

AU - Roberts, N. W.

PY - 2006/10

Y1 - 2006/10

N2 - The optics of vertebrate photoreceptors have been investigated with specific reference to the effect of form birefringence. The complex dielectric tensor of the lamellar-like outer segment structure has been derived, allowing the transverse spectral absorbance to be calculated for different incident polarizations. These results were used to calculate the changes in the cellular dichroic ratio as a function of both the volume occupied by the bilayers and the real and complex parts of the intrinsic birefringence of the bilayers. Physiologically realistic values of these parameters show the cellular dichroic ratio to be greater than the bilayer dichroic ratio by a factor of ≈1.3. Furthermore, the calculations of spectral absorbance indicate that form birefringence may affect measurements of optical density in transversely orientated outer segments. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

AB - The optics of vertebrate photoreceptors have been investigated with specific reference to the effect of form birefringence. The complex dielectric tensor of the lamellar-like outer segment structure has been derived, allowing the transverse spectral absorbance to be calculated for different incident polarizations. These results were used to calculate the changes in the cellular dichroic ratio as a function of both the volume occupied by the bilayers and the real and complex parts of the intrinsic birefringence of the bilayers. Physiologically realistic values of these parameters show the cellular dichroic ratio to be greater than the bilayer dichroic ratio by a factor of ≈1.3. Furthermore, the calculations of spectral absorbance indicate that form birefringence may affect measurements of optical density in transversely orientated outer segments. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

KW - Form birefringence

KW - Form dichroism

KW - Microspectrophotometry

KW - Optical modeling

KW - Vertebrate photoreceptors

U2 - 10.1016/j.visres.2006.03.019

DO - 10.1016/j.visres.2006.03.019

M3 - Article

SN - 0042-6989

VL - 46

SP - 3259

EP - 3266

JO - Vision Research

JF - Vision Research

IS - 19

ER -

The optics of vertebrate photoreceptors: Anisotropy and form birefringence

Abstract

Keywords

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