Cover Picture: Small 4/2008

Cover picture: The cover illustration depicts control of the apparent emission color of a fluorescent protein infiltrated in three-dimensional periodic nanostructures known as photonic crystals. The color of the protein is modified by changing the crystals' structural features rather than by chemically modifying the protein chromophore. By increasing the lattice parameter of the photonic crystal the emitted color changes from orange— when photonically unmodified — to red to green. The change in color results from the redistribution of light emission around the stop band of the photonic crystal. These results are an example of “biophotonic engineering”, wherein biological systems are manipulated with a new set of nanophotonic tools that expand on the existing and well-known biological tools. For more information, please read the Full Paper “Color Control of Natural Fluorescent Proteins by Photonic Crystals” by V. Subramaniam, W. L. Vos, et al. beginning on page 492.