Biological Kerker Effect Boosts Light Collection Efficiency in Plants

Abstract

Being the polymorphs of calcium carbonate (CaCO3), vaterite and calcite have attracted a great deal of attention as promising biomaterials for drug delivery and tissue engineering applications. Furthermore, they are important biogenic minerals, enabling living organisms to reach specific functions. In nature, vaterite and calcite monocrystals typically form self-assembled polycrystal micro- and nanoparticles, also referred to as spherulites. Here, we demonstrate that alpine plants belonging to the Saxifraga genus can tailor light scattering channels and utilize multipole interference effect to improve light collection efficiency via producing CaCO3 polycrystal nanoparticles on the margins of their leaves. To provide a clear physical background behind this concept, we study optical properties of artificially synthesized vaterite nanospherulites and reveal the phenomenon of directional light scattering. Dark-field spectroscopy measurements are supported by a comprehensive numerical analysis, accounting for the complex microstructure of particles. We demonstrate the appearance of generalized Kerker condition, where several higher order multipoles interfere constructively in the forward direction, governing the interaction phenomenon. As a result, highly directive forward light scattering from vaterite nanospherulites is observed in the entire visible range. Furthermore, ex vivo studies of microstructure and optical properties of leaves for the alpine plants Saxifraga “Southside Seedling” and Saxifraga Paniculata Ria are performed and underline the importance of the Kerker effect for these living organisms. Our results pave the way for a bioinspired strategy of efficient light collection by self-assembled polycrystal CaCO3 nanoparticles via tailoring light propagation directly to the photosynthetic tissue with minimal losses to undesired scattering channels.

Unveiling dipolar spectral regimes of large dielectric Mie spheres from helicity conservation

“…Notably, when the electric and magnetic polarizabilities of the scatterer are identical, at the so-called first Kerker condition [7], the EM helicity is preserved [8][9][10] and the intensity in the backscattering direction is exactly zero [11][12][13]. These anomalous light scattering effects have been exploited in multiple branches of physics ranging from boosting light collection efficiency in plants [14], to dynamic control of cryptographic nanoprints [15], to maximizing the sensitivity of circular dichroism spectroscopy of chiral molecules [16][17][18][19]. The physical picture behind most of the aforementioned works consists of maximizing the efficiency of the scattered light while fulfilling the first Kerker condition.…”

Fluorescence Phenomena in Amyloid and Amyloidogenic Bionanostructures

“…In nature, vaterites typically form self-assembled polycrystal micro-and nanoparticles. These vaterite particles can tailor alpine plant light scattering channels and utilize the multipole interference effect to improve light collection efficiency by producing CaCO 3 polycrystal nanoparticles on the margins of their leaves [150].…”

Reaching the superscattering regime with BIC physics

“…In optics, enhancing scattering by subwavelength particles is of a fundamental importance for many practical applications, from energy harvesting to sensing [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. There exists a strict bound to the scattering cross section known as the single-channel limit, being defined for a dipole as 2 0 3 / 2 =    [8] (where  is the wavelength of an incident plane wave).…”