The standard scalar paraxial parabolic (Fock–Leontovich) propagation equation is generalized to include allorder nonparaxial corrections in the significant case of a tensorial refractive-index perturbation on a homogeneous isotropic background. In the resultant equation, each higher-order nonparaxial term (associated with diffraction in homogeneous space and scaling as the ratio between beam wa...

Symmetry and reciprocity constraints on polarization state of the field diffracted by gratings of quasi-planar particles are considered. It is shown that the optical activity effects observed recently in arrays of quasi-planar plasmonic particles on a dielectric substrate are due to the reflection of the field at the air-dielectric slab interface and are proportional to this reflection coeffici...

An extensive study and analysis of the concepts, classification, presentation, and nomenclature of chirality and lack of chirality in crystal structures and their constituents is presented. Oriented crystal structures are classified. The chirality rules for existence of molecular crystal structures are examined and the relation to segmentation and latent symmetry highlighted. The nomenclature o...

Optical activity measurements have been performed on the smectic blue phases (BPSm), which are a new kind of chiral liquid crystal. BPSm exhibit both three-dimensional orientational order, like the classical blue phases, and smectic positional order. Thus, they can be viewed as the three-dimensional counterpart of the twist grain boundary phases. A comparison with the optical activity of the cl...

Earlier studies in this laboratory (1) and by other workers (Z-4) have suggested that the effect of alkaline pH and urea on myosin resulted in major structural alterations in the molecule. Many of these studies were concerned with the attempt at the isolation of subunits or small polypeptide fragments by the treatment of myosin with high urea concentrations for long periods of time or by exposu...

HE question of the origin of petroleum has long been debated. In the history of this question, the fact of the optical activity of petroleum has occupied an important place. It was pointed out ( 1 , 2 ) by Walden that "inorganic" hypotheses for explaining the origin of petroleum did not account for its optical activity. Because of the increasing certainty that all petroleums possessed optical a...

Expressions corresponding to the transmission of a uniaxial optically active crystal platelet are provided for an optical axis parallel and perpendicular to the plane of interface. The optical activity is taken into account by a consistent multipolar expansion of the crystal medium response due to the path of an electromagnetic wave. Numerical examples of the effect of the optical activity are ...