Measurements of Holographic Properties of Bacteriorhodopsin Films

Several different bacteriorhodopsin (BR) films are characterized with respect to general holographic properties. Experimental measurements include diffraction efficiency and sensitivity as functions of writing intensity and grating frequency, hologram thermal decay behavior, diffraction efficiency as a function of grating tilt within the film and modulation depth, and estimates of the refractive index change from the diffraction efficiency data. The films studied include those made from wildtype BR and the genetic variants D96N and D96N/T46V. The maximum diffraction efficiency measured was just over 3% for a hydrated wildtype BR film. The films' holographic properties were found to be relatively insensitive to grating frequency and grating tilt angle. The diffraction efficiency dropped off more sharply as a function of modulation depth than a purely linear medium, and only the hydrated wildtype film exhibited significant behavior variation with different writing intensities.