Optical Properties Of Polymeric Films Of Bacteriorhodopsin And Its Functional Variants: New Materials For Optical Information Processing

N. Hampp; C. Brauchle; D. Oesterhelt

doi:10.1117/12.961347

8 January 1990 Optical Properties Of Polymeric Films Of Bacteriorhodopsin And Its Functional Variants: New Materials For Optical Information Processing

N. Hampp, C. Brauchle, D. Oesterhelt

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 1125, Thin Films in Optics; (1990) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.961347
Event: 1989 International Congress on Optical Science and Engineering, 1989, Paris, France

Abstract

Purple membrane (PM) from Halobacterium halobium consists of a two-dimensional crystal of the photochromic retinal protein bacteriorhodopsin (BR). Purple membrane embedded in inert polymer matrices can be used as reversible recording medium in holography. The thermal and photochemical stability (at least 100.000 recording cycles at room temperature), the high quantum yield (70%), the high resolution (~ 5000 lines/mm) and the wide spectral range (400-680 nm) of these films are promising features for any possible technical application. The variability of this material was restricted to chemical modifications of the chromophoric group for a long time. new class of BR based recording media is introduced by the availability of variants of BR with a modified amino acid sequence. After generation of a mutant strain PM variants can be easily produced by the same cultivation and purification procedures as the PM of the wildtype and therefore are available in virtually unlimited amounts, too. As an example the properties of PM-films containing the variant BR-326, which differs from the wildtype by a single amino acid, are reported here. The improved diffraction efficiency (~ 2-fold) and increased sensitivity (~ 50%) of films containing BR-326 give an impression of the new possibilities for optimizing reversible recording media by biochemical and gentechnological methods as an alternative or an addition to conventional chemical methods.

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N. Hampp, C. Brauchle, and D. Oesterhelt "Optical Properties Of Polymeric Films Of Bacteriorhodopsin And Its Functional Variants: New Materials For Optical Information Processing", Proc. SPIE 1125, Thin Films in Optics, (8 January 1990); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.961347

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