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Mueller matrix characterizations of circularly polarized reflections from golden scarab beetles

Laura E. Bagge, Arthur C. Kenton, Bridget A. Lyons, Martin F. Wehling, and Dennis H. Goldstein

Open Access Open Access

Abstract

Circularly polarized light (CPL) reflections are rare in nature. Only a few animal groups—most notably certain stomatopod crustaceans and certain beetles in the family Scarabaeidae—are known to reflect CPL from incident unpolarized light. Here, we examine five species of metallic scarabs in the genus Chrysina that, to the naked human eye, look remarkably similar. Using a spectropolarimetric reflectometer to characterize the complete Mueller matrix elements of the beetles’ elytral surfaces, we found that four of the five species were strongly left-handed circularly polarized (LHCP), and only one scarab species, Chrysina resplendens, had an overall lower degree of polarization and switched from LHCP to right-handed circularly polarized reflectance depending on wavelength.

© 2020 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement

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Supplementary Material (1)

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Figures (5)
Fig. 1.
Fig. 1. Spectropolarimetric reflectance measurement configuration. FTS is the Fourier transform spectrometer, PSG is the polarization state generator, BS is the beam splitter, and PSA is the polarization state analyzer. The red arrows represent the light beam (that is larger than the beetle) hitting the dorsal curved surface of the beetle sample at normal incidence in this lateral view.

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Fig. 2.
Fig. 2. Photographs of the five scarab species. The top row shows the beetles with no polarization filter. The bottom row shows the beetles through a RHCP filter. From left to right: Chrysina resplendens, Chrysina argenteola, Chrysina chrysargyrea, Chrysina batesi, and Chrysina strasseni. Scale bar is 10 mm.

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Fig. 3.
Fig. 3. Normalized reflectance spectra for the five golden beetle species at normal incidence.

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Fig. 4.
Fig. 4. Mueller matrix spectra for C. argenteola at normal incidence.

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Fig. 5.
Fig. 5. Polarization metrics calculated from the Mueller matrices for the five species of beetles. Clockwise from top left: the degree of circular polarization (DoCP), ellipticity, degree of linear polarization (DoLP), and degree of polarization (DoP).

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Equations (10)

Equations on this page are rendered with MathJax. Learn more.

S r = M S i ,
M = ( m 11 m 12 m 13 m 14 m 21 m 22 m 23 m 24 m 31 m 32 m 33 m 34 m 41 m 42 m 43 m 44 ) ,
S i = ( 1 0 0 0 ) ,
S r = ( m 11 m 21 m 31 m 41 ) .
D e g r e e o f C i r c u l a r P o l a r i z a t i o n , o r D o C P = m 41 ,
D e g r e e o f P o l a r i z a t i o n , o r D o P = m 21 2 + m 31 2 + m 41 2 ,
D e g r e e o f L i n e a r P o l a r i z a t i o n , o r D o L P = m 21 2 + m 31 2 .
D o P 2 = D o L P 2 + D o C P 2 .
e = tan ⁡ ( 1 2 sin − 1 ( m 41 m 21 2 + m 31 2 + m 41 2 ) ) .
( 1 0 0 − 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 − 1 0 0 1 ) .
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