Bacteriorhodopsin Sol-Gel for Holographic Applications.

Abstract

Many Bacteriorhodopsin (BR) mutants were synthesized and their optical absorption properties were measured. Several of the mutants were identified that formed the so-called "Q390 state" at neutral pH, but the ultra-long storage lifetime of this state was not investigated. The double mutant D85N/V49A showed a factor of 50 increase in holographic recording sensitivity compared with the single mutant D85N, and had similar diffraction efficiency. The increased sensitivity of this mutant in the spectral range of laser diodes and its long storage lifetime makes this film a good choice for real-time holographic interferometry systems and optical data storage applications. It was demonstrated that a compact diode laser could be used to record and reconstruct holograms in thick films of the mutant D85N. It was demonstrated that lifetimes of several weeks could be achieved. Since diffusion limits the lifetime, using cross-linked BR can substantially increase it It was also demonstrated that very high data densities could be achieved using shift multiplexing with a speckle wave reference beam. With improved materials (reduced scattering, crosslinked polymer host), a 3 mm thick CD-ROM sized disk of D85N could potentially be used to store hundreds of Gbytes of information.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 01, 1999
Accession Number
ADA370447

Entities

People

  • James Millerd

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Cell Membrane
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics
  • Data Storage Systems
  • Diffraction
  • Flow Visualization
  • Laser Beams
  • Laser Diodes
  • Lasers
  • Light Sources
  • Optical Correlators
  • Optical Properties
  • Optics
  • Polymers
  • Scattering
  • Thick Films
  • Thin Films
  • Waveplates

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Image Processing and Computer Vision.
  • Nanocomposite Materials Science
  • Quantum spin resonance or Electron Paramagnetic Resonance spectroscopy.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy
  • Directed Energy - Lasers