All-optical display using photoinduced anisotropy in a bacteriorhodopsin film

Photoinduced anisotropy in a bacteriorhodopsin film using the pump-probe method was investigated. A diode-pumped second-harmonic YAG laser was used as the pump beam, and three wavelengths, at lambda = 442, 532, 655 nm, from different lasers were used as probe beams. Without the pump beam, the probe light cannot transmit the analyzer to the detector. However, because of photoinduced anisotropy, a portion of the probe light is detected when the pump beam is present. Based on this property, we demonstrate a full-color all-optical display.