An optical processing system using photoanisotropy in a bacteriorhodopsin film

Abstract

We have successfully demonstrated a real-time, self-adaptive optical image processing system using the photoinduced dichroic characteristics of a bacteriorhodopsin film. The advantages of the system are simplicity in operation with no alignment required at the Fourier plane to perform the processing, no vibration isolation systems are required and even a coherent source is not a requirement to perform the experiment.