This document summarizes biomaterials that can be used for photonics applications. It discusses bioderived materials like bacteriorhodopsin and green fluorescent protein, which have optical properties useful for applications like holographic memory and photosensitization. DNA is also presented as a photonic material. Bioinspired materials designed based on principles from biological light harvesting systems, like dendrimers modeled after chlorophyll antenna arrays, are covered. The talk provides an overview of different types of biomaterials and examples of each along with their potential photonic applications.

1. Biomaterials for Photonics
COURSE: NANOPHOTONICS AND BIOPHOTONICS
CODE: NAST 733
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: ASSISTANT PROFESSOR DR. P. THANGADURAI.
PRESENTED BY :
ROOPAVATH UDAY KIRAN
M.Tech 2ND YEAR , sem -3.

2. Overview of the talk
• Introduction
• Bioderived materials
• Bacteriorhodopsin (BR)
• Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP)
• DNA as a photonics material
• Bioinspired materials
• References

3. Introduction
• The development of photonics technology is
crucially dependent on the availability of
suitable optical materials.
• Biomaterials with significant optical properties
are emerging as an important class of
materials for a variety of photonics
applications.

4. Image ref: Paras N. Prasad - Introduction to Biophotonics - Wiley-Interscience (2003)

5. Materials derived from biological systems are
advantageous because:
• Flawless composition
• Stereo specific structure
• Flexibility
• Biodegradable property
Compounds of biological origin can spontaneously organize into
complex structures and function as systems possessing long
range and hierarchical order.

6. Types of biomaterials for photonics applications
1. Bioderived materials, naturally occurring or
their chemical modifications
2. Bioinspired materials, synthesized based on
guiding principles of biological systems
3. Biotemplates for self-assembling of photonic
active structures
4. Bacteria bioreactors for producing photonic
polymers.

7. Biomaterials for photonic applications

8. BIODERIVED MATERIALS
 Naturally occurring biological matter or their
chemically derivatized forms.
 Examples:
• Bacteriorhodopsin for holographic memory
• Green fluorescent proteins for photosensitization
• DNA as host for laser dyes
• Biocolloids for photonics crystal media

9. Bacteriorhodopsin
• Bacteriorhodopsin (often abbreviated as bR) grows
in the purple membrane of a salt marsh bacterium
known as Halobacterium salinarium or
Halobacterium halobium (Birge et al., 1999).
• The BR molecule is a retinal-protein complex,
consisting of a protein molecule (BR) and a retinal
molecule (oxidized A vitamin form also called Vitamin
A aldehyde) bound by a Schiff base.
• The protein has a molecular weight of 26.534 DA,
and 248 amino-acid residues in a polypeptide chain.
• The chain has seven alpha helices in dimeric
structure, and exists in a globule-shaped 3-D
structure

10. Image from: Bioengineering of Materials, Nikolai Vsevolodov (auth.), David Amiel (eds.)-
Biomolecular Electronics An Introduction via Photosensitive Proteins - Birkhauser Boston
(1996)

11. • BR belongs to the class of transmembrane
proteins, and penetrates the entire thickness of
the membrane contacting both the cytoplasmic
and the external surfaces.
• Retinal is linked to the 216th lysine residue
located approximately two-thirds the distance
from the cytoplasmic surface of the membrane.
• In the dark, retinal occurs in all-trans and 13-cis
isomeric configurations.
• In the light, all 13-cis retinals isomerize to the
all-trans configuration.

13. • Experiments with BR mutants confirm the
hypothesis about proton translocation across
proton-acceptor groups inside the protein.
• The model for this path was proposed by
Henderson et al. [1990]. Upon radiation, all trans
retinal isomerization and protonation of a Schiff
base occur.
• The proton is released via Asp-85 and migrates
further towards the external side of the PM
represented by M to N or M to BR570 conversion
during a photocycle.
• This is one of the most widely accepted models.

17. • Every radiated BR molecule pumps the average
of 100 protons per second across the purple
membrane, using up energy an average of 100
quanta.
• We say "average" because, according to some
reports, 1 light quantum transports from 0.8 to
1.2 protons [Grzesiek and Dencher 1988].
• We must remember that 1 PM contains 50,000-
150,000 BR molecules.
• From an engineers viewpoint, PM is a perfectly
reliable structure, which by some accident
happened to be of biological origin

19. Bacteriorhodopsin for holographic memory

21. The advantage of using
stored holograms for
memory application is
that in the same space
(volume element) many
different holograms
(thousands) can
be recorded by changing
the angle of the writing
incident beams. This
process
is called angular
multiplexing

24. Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP)
• Green fluorescent protein (GFP) is a naturally
fluorescent protein (MW 27kDa) isolated from
the jelly fish Aequorea victoria (Shimomura
etal,1962).
• One major advantage of GFP is that it can
become fluorescent without requiring any
exogenous substrates or enzymes.
• This is because the chromophore of GFP is
formed by an internal post-translational
autocatalytic cyclization of three amino acids
(Chalfie etal.,1994)

25. • Protein composed of 238 amino acid residues
that exhibit bright green fluorescence when
exposed to light in the blue to ultra violet range.
• Absorption in two bands at ~395nm and 475nm
covers a broad range of UV and visible regions.
• GFP can be used as photosensitizer.
• GFP was chosen as a photosensitizer because of
its high fluorescence quantum yield of 80% and
excitation covering a major portion of the UV to
blue-green wavelengths.

26. Confocal image of the worm Caenorhabditis elegas. Six luminous spots
can be distinguished on the worm, representing the fluorescence yielded
from the Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) molecules

27. Applications of GFP
• Can be applied in molecular photonic switches or
optical storage.
• GFP also exhibits efficient two-photon excitation
when excited at 800 nm. Two-photon excitation
has successfully been used to produce up-conversion
lasing in GFP.
• As molecular Photodiode. GFP exhibits a very
efficient photoinduced electron transfer such as
those found for photoelectric conversion in retina
and long-range electron transfer in
photosynthetic organisms.

28. Applications of the GFP Technology for
Biophotonic Studies of Programmed Cell Death

29. DNA AS A PHOTONIC MATERIAL
• The most important and famous biomaterial known to
man is DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid), that carries the
genetic code in all living organisms.
• DNA molecules are present in either an aqueous or
organic-solvent solution and are transported in a fluid
under the influence of electric fields or fluid flow.
• In contrast, solid-state devices are based on thin films
of DNA. DNA films are produced by solution methods
where a reaction between the DNA and a cationic
surfactant (such as cetyl trimethyl ammonium — CTMA)
produces a DNA–lipid complex that is insoluble in
water but soluble in alcohols

30. An artist’s view of DNA being incorporated into an OLED structure
(drawing by W. Li)

33. Bioinspired materials
• Bioinspired materials are those synthesized on the
basis of governing principles of biological systems.
Example: Light harvesting dendrimers
 modeled after a naturally occurring photosynthetic
system, a chlorophyll assembly
 consists of a large array of chlorophyll molecules that
surround a reaction centre
 chlorophyll array acts as an efficient light harvesting
antenna to capture photons from the sun and
transfer the absorbed energy to the reaction centre.

34. • The reaction centre utilizes this energy to
produce charge separation, eventually
forming ATP and NADPH.
• Frechet et al. have demonstrated two-photon
excited efficient light harvesting in novel
dendrite systems.
• Here the antennas are efficient two-photon
absorbers that absorb near-IR photons at 800
nm and transfer the excitation energy
quantitatively to the core molecule

36. References
• Paras N. Prasad-Introduction to Biophotonics-
Wiley-Interscience (2003).
• Xun Shen, Roel van Wijk-Biophotonics_ Optical
Science and Engineering for the 21st Century-
Springer (2006).
• Bioengineering of Materials by Nikolai
Vsevolodov (auth.), David Amiel (eds.)-
Biomolecular Electronics - An Introduction via
Photosensitive Proteins - Birkhauser Boston
(1996)
• A. J. Steckl; “DNA - a new material for
photonics?,” Nat. Photon. 1, 3(2007).

37. Thank you for your kind
attention..!