The use of bacteriorhodopsin (BR) as an active layer in write-once-read-many optical storage is presented. This novel feature of BR materials may be used on a wide variety of substrates, among them transparent substrates but also paper and plastics. The physical basis of the recording process is polarization-sensitive two-photon absorption. As an example for this new BR application, an identification card equipped with an optical recording strip is presented, which has a capacity of about 1 MB of data. The recording density currently used is 125 kB/cm2, which is far from the optical limits but allows operation with cheap terminals using plastic optics. In the examples given, data are stored in blocks of 10 kB each. A special optical encryption procedure allows the stored data to be protected from unauthorized reading. The molecular basis of this property is again the polarization-sensitive recording mechanism. The unique combination of optical storage, photochromism, and traceability of the BR material is combined on the single-molecule level. BR introduces a new quality of storage capability for applications with increased security and anticounterfeiting requirements.

Purple membranes (PMs), which consist of the photochromic membrane protein bacteriorhodopsin (BR) and lipids only, show complex thermochromic properties. Three different types of reversible temperature-dependent spectral transitions were found, involving spectral states absorbing at 460, 519, and 630 nm. These thermochromic absorption changes were analyzed in the range from 10 to 80 degrees C. In dependence on the bulk pH value, hypsochromic or bathochromic shifts in the BR absorption spectra are observed in BR gels as well as in BR films. The thermochromic changes between both purple and blue or purple and red were quantified in the CIE color system. The molecular changes causing these effects are discussed, and a model is presented in terms of intramolecular protonation equilibriums. The thermochromic properties of BR may be of interest in applications like security tags, as this feature may complement the well-known photochromic properties of BR.

In this work, a new biomaterial resulting from the isolation of octopus rhodopsin (OR) starting from octopus photoreceptor membranes is presented. Mass spectroscopic characterization was employed in order to verify the presence of rhodopsin in the extract. Photoreversibility and photochromic properties were investigated using spectrophotometric measurements and pulsed light. Thin films of OR were realized using the gel-matrix entrapment method in polyvinyl alcohol solution. The results indicate that the photoreversibility and the photostability of the OR in gel-matrices are maintained. Several measurements were performed to test the stability of the resulting biomaterial in time and at room temperature. Preliminary tests demonstrate that the photoreversibility and the photostability are still found after few days from the biomaterial preparation and after the exposure for several hours at room temperature.

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Bacteriorhodopsin (BR) is a crystalline photochromic protein which shows an astonishing stability towards chemical and thermal degradation. This material is used in a variety of applications which have been developed, among them photochromic color-changes, optical data storage and molecular traceability of the material. Integration of all three security levels in a document will be shown. One year lasting field tests have proven the stability of the system in daily use. First applications of polarization encoded data storage and data encryption have been realized successfully. The development of BR-based security features will be reviewed and newer developments will be presented, among them individualized computer generated holograms and the development of ink-jet inks. The data-storage capabilities of the biomaterial BR have been further developed and now visual detectable as well as visual non-detectable storage processes are available. The molecular mechanisms of the data storage process will be presented.