RETINAL-PROTEIN COMPLEXES AS OPTOELECTRONIC COMPONENTS

Naturally occurring retinal-protein complexes (RPCs) have recently rec eived much attention with regard to their potential use as light-sensi tive elements for optical recording. The best-known RPC is bacteriorho dopsin (BR), a photosensitive protein from the membrane of extreme hal ophilic bacteria, which has been studied in great detail. The remarkab ly robust nature of BR, coupled with its ability to reversibly change color upon illumination and its high cyclicity of ground-to-photoinduc ed state transitions, makes BR a promising material for optical inform ation processing.