Bacteriorhodopsin (bR) thin films have been fabricated with varying am
ounts of the detergent Triton X-100 to measure the effect of this addi
tive on the holographic performance of these thin films. Holographic s
pectroscopy is used to measure the effect of these detergents on the o
verall diffraction efficiency as well as on the phase and amplitude co
mponents of the overall signal. The diffracted rise and decay kinetics
of these materials will also be presented as a function of varying de
tergent concentration. This research also studied the effect of this a
dditive on the absorptive properties of bR-based thin films. Compariso
ns of the two complimentary sets of data are drawn.