Photoacoustic spectroscopy Photoacoustic spectroscopy Photoacoustic spectroscopy is the measurement of the effect of absorbed electromagnetic energy (particularly of light) on matter by means of acoustic detection. The discovery of the photoacoustic effect dates to 1880 when Alexander Graham Bell showed that thin discs emitted sound when exposed to a beam of sunlight that was rapidly interrupted with a rotating slotted disk. The absorbed energy from the light causes local heating, generating a thermal expansion which creates a pressure wave or sound. Later Bell showed that materials exposed to the non-visible portions of the solar spectrum (i.e., the infrared and the ultraviolet) can
Ultraviolet communication in butterflies UV reflecting scales are composed of raised longitudinal ridges and perpendicular cross ribs that connect the parallel running ridges, forming a grid. The ridges possess lamellae that run on top of and parallel to the ridges and microribs on its sides. The partial overlap of lamellae structures causes thin layer interference resulting in the reflection of light with a wavelength within the ultraviolet spectrum. The other ultraviolet signal in butterflies, absorbance, was determined to be governed by pigments called pterins. In wings containing this pigment, the wings are unable to reflect ultraviolet light as well as without the pigment because