Polarization structural birefringence

This is an extracellular deposition of an insoluble protein, which has adopted a (3-sheet structure due to an unknown event that induced misfolding of unstable proteins. The name amyloid has been given according to the amyloid staining properties, which are similar to carbohydrate deposits, e.g., amyloid can be identified with Congo red and seen under polarized light (birefringence test). 

Robinson as cholesteric. When viewed between crossed polars, these birefringent solutions present an image very reminiscent of a fingerprint. The spacing between the alternating bright and dark retardation lines is equal to one-half of the pitch of the cholesteric structure (Fig. 1, liquid). 

Figure 8 Schematic representation of the processes leading to birefringence (and turbidity) in a W/O microemulsion, in relation to an applied electric square pulse E. Below a (second) threshold value of the field strength and far from critical conditions, or under any conditions if the pulse is terminated at a time indicated by the dashed line, only birefringence is observed due to the formation of AJ, and Above the threshold of the field strength, close to critical conditions, and with a sufficiently long square pulse, turbidity contributes to the signal due to phase separation or/and percolation. The double wall of the particles symbolizes the water/oil interface. Symbols A, surfactant monomer An, microemulsion droplet (An), cluster LCmp, liquid-crystalline microphase or/and percolation structure. Primed symbols stand for polarized structures oriented parallel to E (- ) reversible step with respect to turning the field on or off (->) irreversible step. (Reprinted with permission from Refs. 6 and 41. Copyright 1989 and 1994 American Chemical Society.)...

Two crossed polarizers are frequently used to inspect transparent materials placed between them for optical activity, either for birefringence or for optical rotary effects. Birefringence effects are produced by materials with a regular ordered structure that allows light to pass through at one orientation at a higher velocity than at another orientation. As a result of this, the two wave trains generated by the different velocities... 

The large intrinsic birefringence of the sarcoplasmic reticulum [143] and the polarized attenuated total reflectance FTIR spectroscopy data obtained on oriented films of sarcoplasmic reticulum [144] indicate that a sizeable portion of the secondary structural elements are arranged perpendicularly to the plane of the membrane in a manner reminiscent to the structure of bacteriorhodopsin [145-148]. 

By optical microscopy (OM), birefringent structures are observed in semicrystalline polymers, characterized by "Maltese-crosses" under crossed polars as seen in Figure 6. As these structures grow symmetrically in three dimensions... 

The first and third order terms in odd powers of the applied electric field are present for all materials. In the second order term, a polarization is induced proportional to the square of the applied electric field, and the. nonlinear second order optical susceptibility must, therefore, vanish in crystals that possess a center of symmetry. In addition to the noncentrosymmetric structure, efficient second harmonic generation requires crystals to possess propagation directions where the crystal birefringence cancels the natural dispersion leading to phase matching. 

However, further analysis of the behavior of the system in LC cells cast doubt on this interpretation. First, while intuitively attractive, the idea that relaxation of the polarization by formation of a helielectric structure of the type shown in Figure 8.20 would lower the free energy of the system is not correct. Also, in a thermodynamic helical LC phase the pitch is extremely uniform. The stripes in a cholesteric fingerprint texture are, for example, uniform in spacing, while the stripes in the B2 texture seem quite nonuniform in comparison. Finally, the helical SmAPF hypothesis predicts that the helical stripe texture should have a smaller birefringence than the uniform texture. Examination of the optics of the system show that in fact the stripe texture has the higher birefringence. 

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