Biomaterial from Bacteria Shows Promise for Photonic Applications

An international research team showed that a material created using tellurium nanorods, which are produced by naturally occurring bacteria, could be an effective nonlinear optical material that is capable of protecting electronic devices against high-intensity bursts of light, including those emitted by lasers. The researchers harvested biologically generated elemental tellurium nanocrystals produced by the anaerobe, Bacillus selenitireducens, and studied their potential for nonlinear optical applications including optical limiting, mode-locking, Q-switching, and all-optical switching. Nonlinear optical measurements of the material showed strong saturable absorption and nonlinear optical extinctions induced by Mie scattering over...