ORIENTED BIOLOGICAL MATERIAL FOR OPTICAL INFORMATION STORAGE AND PROCESSING

摘要

A stable, image-retaining, optically switchable film (24) produced from a purple membrane in a high-pH polyvinyl alcohol solution forms an optical memory for data storage. The film (24) when dry, can be exposed to light (26) to convert BR molecules to their M state, which is stable, and which allows long-term image storage. The image can be erased by exposing the film (24) to yellow light to thereby switch all the molecules to the M state, and then a reverse image can be obtained using blue light. By controlling the location and wavelength of the incident light (26), pixels can be selected and exposed for information storage.