Optical information storage of bacteriorhodopsin molecule film: experimental study

We present here an experiment of optical information storage of bacteriorhodopsin (BR) polymer film made from variant M1B. A recording system of three-wavelength has been set up in the experiment. The photoexcited P(490) state shows a permanent storage property confirmed by our contrast ratio experiments. It is found out that the readout contrast ratio is very sensitive to the intensity and wavelength of probe beam and the recorded data can be readout from 530–630 nm with different contrast ratio. Within the range 570–600 nm, a better contrast ratio can be obtained. Considering the erasing effect for the reason of absorption of P state, by using 594 nm as the readout wavelength both higher contrast ratio and nondestructive reading can be realized.