The mantis shrimp, found on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, have the most complex vision system known to science, with the ability to see in 12 colours and distinguish between different forms of polarised light. However it is their ability to convert linearly polarized light to circularly polarised light and vice versa which means they may have many applications in DVD and CD players, and in polarizing filters for cameras.

Special light-sensitive cells in the shrimp’s eye act as quarter-wave plates, rotating the plane of oscillations, or polarisation of light, as it travels through it. Currently manmade quarter-wave plates perform this function in DVD and CD players, and in circular polarizing filters for cameras.

Dr Nicholas Roberts, lead author of a paper published in Nature Photonics in October, said: “Our work reveals for the first time the unique design and mechanism of the quarter-wave plate in the mantis shrimp’s eye.  It really is exceptional – outperforming anything we humans have so far been able to create.”

It is not clear why the shrimp needs such sensitivity to circularly polarised light, but it is thought polarization vision is used by animals for sexual signalling, secret communication or to assist in finding and catching prey underwater by improving the clarity of images.

Dr Roberts continued: “What’s particularly exciting is how beautifully simple it is. This natural mechanism, comprised of cell membranes rolled into tubes, completely outperforms synthetic designs.”  He suggests it could improve optical devices using liquid crystals that have been chemicals engineered to mimic the cells in the mantis shrimps eye.