Photo-induced anisotropic photoelectric response in oriented bacteriorhodopsin films

The photo-induced anisotropic properties of the chromophore protein bacteriorhodopsin (bR) are of interest for possible applications in optical image processing and spatial filtering. Here we report experimental results on the photo-induced anisotropic photoelectric response of dried oriented bR films. A polarization dependent photovoltage is measured across an ITO/bR/ITO photodetector. The anisotropy is introduced by a 632.8 nm linearly polarized pump beam and is detected with a 594.1 nm polarized probe beam. The influence of the pump light intensity on the photovoltage anisotropy has also been investigated. A model, based on the polarization dependent photoselection of the bR molecules reasonably explains the behavior of the measured data. The observed effect can be used to construct a polarization sensitive bR-based bio-photoreceiver.