Fábián László, Heiner Zsuzsanna, Mero Mark, Kiss Miklós, Wolff Elmar K, Ormos Pál, Osvay Károly, Dér András
Institute of Biophysics, Biological Research Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 521, 6701 Szeged, Hungary.
Opt Express. 2011 Sep 26;19(20):18861-70. doi: 10.1364/OE.19.018861.
Several inorganic and organic materials have been suggested for utilization as nonlinear optical material performing light-controlled active functions in integrated optical circuits, however, none of them is considered to be the optimal solution. Here we present the first demonstration of a subpicosecond photonic switch by an alternative approach, where the active role is performed by a material of biological origin: the chromoprotein bacteriorhodopsin, via its ultrafast BR->K and BR->I transitions. The results may serve as a basis for the future realization of protein-based integrated optical devices that can eventually lead to a conceptual revolution in the development of telecommunications technologies.
已有多种无机和有机材料被提议用作非线性光学材料，以在集成光学电路中实现光控有源功能，然而，它们都未被视为最佳解决方案。在此，我们通过一种替代方法首次展示了亚皮秒光子开关，其中活性作用由一种生物源材料——视蛋白细菌视紫红质通过其超快的BR->K和BR->I跃迁来实现。这些结果可为未来基于蛋白质的集成光学器件的实现奠定基础，最终可能在电信技术发展中引发概念性革命。
