Measurements of the depolarization ratio rgr;vof light scattered by the pigments lycopene and bgr;hyphen;carotene at the red part of their absorption bands yielded values which are very close to the theoretical value 1/3 of a fully anisotropic molecular polarizability, i.e., that due to an electric dipole moment. Measurements of rgr;vat the blue edge of the visible absorption band of pinacyanol chloride yielded a value of 0.75 at 472.2 nm, which is the maximum value that a depolarization ratio can assume, and is attained if the average molecular polarizability is zero. This is possible only if the diagonalized polarizability tensor has at least one negative element to counterbalance the positive ones. A negative refractive index at the blue edge of the absorption band is thus experimentally demonstrated.
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