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Published on: June 27, 2014
Photoelectric response of polarization sensitive bacteriorhodopsin films
Qun Li1, Jeffrey A Stuart, Robert R Birge
1W.M. Keck Center for Molecular Electronics & Department of Chemistry, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA.
Abstract:
Polarization sensitivity is introduced into oriented bacteriorhodopsin (BR) films through a photochemical bleaching process, which chemically modifies the structure of the purple membrane by breaking the intrinsic symmetry of the membrane-bound BR trimers. The resulting photovoltage generated in an indium-tin oxide (ITO)/BR/ITO detector is found to be anisotropic with respect to cross-polarized probe beams. A model, based on the polarization dependent photoselection of the BR molecules qualitatively explains the photochemical bleaching process and the observed anisotropic response. The effect reported here can be used to construct a polarization sensitive BR-based bio-photoreceiver.
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