LARGE ENHANCEMENT OF NONLINEAR OPTICAL RESPONSE IN A HYBRID NANOBIOMATERIAL CONSISTING OF BACTERIORHODOPSIN AND CADMIUM TELLURIDE QUANTUM DOTS

Aliaksandra Rakovich, Igor Nabiev, Alyona Sukhanova, Vladimir Lesnyak, Nikolai Gaponik, Yury P. Rakovich, and John F. Donegan.

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/nn3049939

ACS Nano 2013, 7, no.3, pp. 2154–2160

Results presented in this paper demonstrated that CdTe quantum dots assembled on the purple membranes containing protein bacteriorhodopsin are able to strongly (up to 4000% at 700 nm) enhance the nonlinear refractive index of bacteriorhodopsin.

large-enhancement-nonlinear-optical-response-hybrid-nanobiomaterial-consisting-bacteriorhodopsin-cadmium-telluride-quantum-dots

Using wavelength tunable z-scan technique we find that the enhancement of nonlinear refractive index was significantly smaller at higher wavelengths and only 10-25% in the region of linear absorption (500-650 nm). It is also demonstrated that the bacteriorhodopsin, being a part of an engineered hybrid material, is able to utilize the harvested energy to improve its nonlinear optical properties. Results of this study indicate that both in the linear and the nonlinear regime the quantum dots and the bacteriorhodopsin represent a highly interacting system, and as such, their hybrid material is a good candidate for utilization in device applications.

Aliaksandra Rakovich, Igor Nabiev, Alyona Sukhanova, Vladimir Lesnyak, Nikolai Gaponik, Yury P. Rakovich, and John F. Donegan. ACS Nano 2013, 7, no.3, pp. 2154–2160