Fast integrated optical switching by the protein bacteriorhodopsin

State-of-the-art photonic integration technology is ready to provide the passive elements of optical integrated circuits, based either on silicon, glass or plastic materials. The bottleneck is to find the proper nonlinear optical (NLO) materials in waveguide-based integrated optical circuits for light-controlled active functions. Recently, we proposed an approach where the active role is performed by the chromoprotein bacteriorhodopsin as an NLO material, that can be combined with appropriate integrated optical devices. Here we present data supporting the possibility of switching based on a fast photoreaction of bacteriorhodopsin. The results are expected to have important implications for photonic switching technology. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3462940]