Photonic Potential of Haloarchaeal Pigment Bacteriorhodopsin for Future Electronics: A Review

Haloarchaea are known for its adaptation in extreme saline environment. Halophilic archaea produces carotenoid pigments and proton pumps to protect them from extremes of salinity. Bacteriorhodopsin (bR) is a light-driven proton pump that resides in the membrane of haloarchaea Halobacterium salinarum. The photocycle of Bacteriorhodopsin passes through several states from K to O, finally liberating ATP for host's survival. Extensive studies on Bacteriorhodopsin photocycle has provided in depth knowledge on their sequential mechanism of converting solar energy into chemical energy inside the cell. This ability of Bacteriorhodopsin to harvest sunlight has now been experimented to exploit the unexplored and extensively available solar energy in various biotechnological applications. Currently, bacteriorhodopsin finds its importance in dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC), logic gates (integrated circuits, IC's), optical switching, optical memories, storage devices (random access memory, RAM), biosensors, electronic sensors and optical microcavities. This review deals with the optical and electrical applications of the purple pigment Bacteriorhodopsin.