Broadband optical limiter based on nonlinear photoinduced anisotropy in bacteriorhodopsin film

Nonlinear photoinduced anisotropy in a bacteriorhodopsin film was theoretically and experimentally investigated and a broadband active optical limiter was demonstrated in the visible spectral range. A diode-pumped second harmonic yttrium aluminum garnet laser was used as a pumping beam and three different wavelengths at λ=442, 532, and 655nm from different lasers were used as probing beams. The pump and probe beams overlap at the sample. When the pumping beam is absent, the probing beam cannot transmit the crossed polarizers. With the presence of the pumping beam, a portion of the probing light is detected owing to the photoinduced anisotropy. Due to the optical nonlinearity, the transmitted probing beam intensity is clamped at a certain value, which depends on the wavelength, when the pumping beam intensity exceeds 5mW∕mm2. Good agreement between theory and experiment is found.