APPLICATION OF BACTERIORHODOPSIN FILMS IN AN ADAPTIVE-FOCUSING SCHLIEREN SYSTEM

The photochromic property of bacteriorhodopsin films is exploited in t he application of a focusing schlieren optical system for the visualiz ation of optical phase information. By encoding an image on the film w ith light of one wavelength and reading out with a different wavelengt h, the readout beam can effectively see the photographic negative of t he original image. The potential advantage of this system over previou s focusing schlieren systems is that the updatable nature of the bacte riorhodopsin film allows system adaptation. I discuss two image encodi ng and readout techniques for the bacteriorhodopsin and use film trans mission characteristics to choose the more appropriate method. I demon strate the system principle with experimental results using argon-ion and He-Cd lasers as the two light sources of different wavelengths, an d I discuss current limitations to implementation with a white-light s ource.