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The phase-modulated beams technique is developed for nonlinear thin photorefractive films characterization. In the Raman–Nath diffraction approximation, the formulas are deduced, allowing us to measure the amplitude of phase grating recorded in a film and its nonlinear refractive index n2. The method is applied for studying Langmuir–Blodgett multilayer thin (∼0.6 μm) films of Bacteriorhodopsin at wavelength 633 nm.

Polymer films with immobilized photosensitive membrane protein, bacteriorhodopsin (BR), were prepared and investigated. A sensitive holographic interferometer with phase modulated optical beams was used for investigation of kinetics of dynamic hologram recording in BR polymer films. It was found that phase hologram formation consisted of two quasi-exponential stages demonstrating existence of a diffusive process in obtained films. It was shown that the kinetics of a phase hologram recording by high intensity beams do not correlate with the exponential law. The applicability of BR polymer films as reversible photorefractive materials for dynamic holography and real-time interferometry was discussed.

Modifications of bulk and surface properties of materials covered with nanoobjects such as: fullerenes, nanotubes, quantum dots, shungites, graphenes, etc., were studied. Improved photorefractive, photoconductive, mechanical and spectral properties were observed for the optical materials operating in the UV-VIS-IR spectral ranges. A wide area of possible applications of these materials in optoelectronics, laser techniques and solar energy conversion is proposed and discussed.

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