Title: Novel biological metamaterials, nanoscale optical devices, and Polarimetric Exploratory Data Analysis (pEDA)

Authors: G.C. Giakos

Addresses: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325-3904, USA

Abstract: This study reports that certain biological macromolecules, colloidal suspensions, or organic molecular structures, with very large optical activities, exhibit enhanced transmission, backscattering and signal characteristics. Although by definition, these molecular nanocomposite structures can be classified as metamaterials, whether these macromolecules exhibit uniquely defined metamaterial characteristics, deserves a careful study before any assessment can be made. Based on the above, a new optical polarimetric metrics definition is introduced, namely, the Polarimetric Exploratory Data Analysis (pEDA) aimed to quantify the signal characteristics of photons interacting with optically active media, in terms of enhanced contrast and potential discriminant descriptors, without excluding expansion of the same metrics to other areas of research.

Keywords: molecular nanodomains; biological metamaterials; large optical activity; negative refraction; molecular adaptive optics; nanoscale colloids; optical nanoscale devices; pEDA; polarimetric exploratory data analysis; colloidal suspensions; organic molecular structures; molecular nanocomposites; nanotechnology; enhanced transmission; enhanced backscattering; enhanced signal characteristics.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSISE.2010.034627

International Journal of Signal and Imaging Systems Engineering, 2010 Vol.3 No.1, pp.3 - 12

Published online: 13 Aug 2010 *

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