Bell Labs Scientists Find Remarkable Optics in Marine Creatures That May Lead to Better Microlenses for Optical Networks

Business Wire, August 22, 2001

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MURRAY HILL, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 22, 2001

Scientists from Lucent Technologies' (NYSE: LU) Bell Labs have discovered that chalk-like calcite crystals in the skeletons of marine creatures known as brittlestars have a remarkable dual function, acting as armor as well as optical receptors for an all-seeing compound eye.

They say that studies of this novel multifunctional biomaterial may lead to better-designed optical elements for telecommunications networks.

The surprising discovery that brittlestars use calcitic crystals to act as optical detectors, in addition to providing skeletal support, was made by an international multidisciplinary team of researchers, comprising scientists from Bell Labs, the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, and will be described in an article to be published in the August 23rd issue of Nature.

"This is an excellent example of something we can learn from nature," said Federico Capasso, physical research vice president at Bell Labs. "These tiny calcite crystals are nearly perfect optical microlenses, much better than any we can manufacture today."

Brittlestars, also known as serpent stars, are marine invertebrates that usually have five thin long arms emanating from a small, disk-shaped body. They belong to the phylum of echinoderms, which also includes starfish, sea urchins and other related classes of marine organisms.

The analysis of bony structures in the arms of the brittlestar Ophiocoma wendtii showed the presence of a regular array of spherical microstructures that look like lenses. Experiments subsequently showed that these microstructures, which are absent in closely-related but light-indifferent species of brittlestars, were indeed sophisticated optical elements that have the optimal design for focusing light.

The lenses focus light about 5 microns below their surface. Nerve bundles running through the skeleton underneath the lenses are thought to pick up the light signal. Acting together, thousands of calcite crystals form a kind of primitive compound eye that covers much of the organism's body, and researchers think this must be useful in detecting and escaping from predators.

The calcite microlenses expertly compensate for birefringence and spherical aberration - physical effects common in lenses that distort light - and scientists hope to mimic nature's success and design microlenses based on the brittlestar model. Such biomimetic lenses may prove useful as components of optical networks, and in chip design, where they could potentially improve optical lithography techniques.

"Biomimetics builds on nature's expertise," said John Rogers, director of nanotechnology research at Bell Labs. "In this case, a relatively simple organism has a solution to a very complex problem in optics and materials design."

In an accompanying commentary in the same issue of Nature, independent expert Roy Sambles of the University of Exeter, UK, wrote, "Once again we find that nature foreshadowed our technical development."

"I have always been fascinated with nature's ability to perfect materials," said Joanna Aizenberg, the Bell Labs scientist who led the international research team of materials scientists, physicists, chemists and biologists. "The more you study biological organisms the more you realize how much there is to be learned from them."

Other researchers involved in the research were Alexei Tkachenko of Bell Labs, Steve Weiner and Lia Addadi of the Weizmann Institute of Science and Gordon Hendler of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

Bell Labs research continues to push the frontiers of technology. Bell Labs has garnered more than 2,500 patents in optical technology alone and has helped Lucent create and bring optical innovations such as dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) quickly to market. DWDM technology enables service providers to send more information down a channel by using multiple colors of light to transmit information. With approximately 7,000 optical systems installed worldwide, Lucent has the largest global deployment of DWDM equipment; Lucent was first to market with a DWDM system in 1995, and has since shipped more DWDM systems than any other vendor. Lucent also was first to market with an all-optical switch, the WaveStar(TM) LambdaRouter, another technological breakthrough developed by Bell Labs.

In fact, Lucent has regained market leadership in the optical equipment market, according to Dell'Oro Group, a leading market research firm located in Redwood City, Calif. According to a report issued last Friday, Lucent captured the largest market share - 21.1 percent -- of the $4 billion global optical equipment market during the second quarter of 2001.

With 27,000 employees in 25 countries, Bell Labs is the world's largest R&D organization dedicated to communications and the leading source of new communications technologies. Bell Labs has generated more than 28,000 patents since 1925 and has played a pivotal role in inventing or perfecting key communications technologies, including transistors, digital networking and signal processing, lasers and fiber-optic communications systems, communications satellites, cellular telephony, electronic switching of calls, touch-tone dialing, and modems. Bell Labs scientists have received six Nobel Prizes in Physics, nine U.S. Medals of Science and six U.S. Medals of Technology. For more information about Bell Labs, visit its Web site at http://www.bell-labs.com.