Technique developed by Ukrainian scientists extends knowledge of properties of surrounding world

It is believed that in the main, the man perceives the surrounding world by means of visual recording of radiation, which has traveled through objects about him or reflected from them. However, the partial polarization of radiation that always takes place, keeps a secret inaccessible to the eye of the man.

Inability of the eye to discriminate a state of the polarization of a light limits full-value perception of the real world. Thanks to special physical devices, the man can observe a state of the polarization of a light and use it for his purposes.

The one, who is capable of recording the polarized light, sees the surrounding world in a new quality. Objects look different in that world and materials assume unheard-of properties. For instance, transparent bodies become opaque in the polarized light and vice versa.

Researchers of the Institute of Semiconductor Physics under the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine developed the physical devices that enable recording of the polarized part of radiation. The technique of polarized modulation of electromagnetic radiation has been developed on the basis of these devices. It helps uncover the secrets of properties of a substance, which are kept in the parameters of radiation.

This sets a new trend in experimental science, namely the polarimetry of a high information capacity. And there appears a possibility of observing the unheard-of properties of many substances in all states of aggregation, as well as using these properties for practical purposes.

Today the Institute has devices operating on the basis of the new technique. Some of them have already been introduced into production, and some are going through a phase-in.

In particular, a laser tensometer is designed to determine the values of internal tension of nontransparent bodies in space and time. This instrument surpasses comparable X-ray devices in safety and efficiency.

Using the properties of plasmon resonance, a modulation polarimeter has a recording capacity up to world standards. It is designed for research on biological reactions in medicine.

A line of biosensors is seen as the top of polarimetric instrument-making. Perfection of the latest version of the Plasmon-8 biosensor ensures a demand for it not only in Ukraine but also abroad. Testing of the biosensors at medical and biological institutes to diagnose a glioma of the brain and the danger of thrombosis as well as to monitor a treatment of the blood circulation system and to gauge the efficacy of the drugs, which are being developed, opens up entirely new horizons in medicine.

Scientific and practical importance of the results produced by Ukrainian scientists has allowed the Institute of Semiconductor Physics to submit a cycle of works of a creative group of researchers led by Dr. Boris Serdega for the 2015 Ukraine’s State Prize in the Fields of Science and Technology. The cycle of their works is entitled “Polarimetry of High Information Capacity and Products Based on It”.