Light-Harvesting in Biophotonic Optofluidic Microcavities via Whispering-Gallery Modes

Abstract

Phycobiliproteins are a class of light-harvesting fluorescent proteins existing in cyanobacteria and microalgae, which harvest light and convert it into electricity. Owing to recent demands on environmental-friendly and renewable apparatuses, phycobiliproteins have attracted substantial interest in bioenergy and sustainable devices. However, converting energy from biological materials remains challenging to date. Herein, we report a novel scheme to enhance biological light-harvesting through light–matter interactions at the biointerface of whispering-gallery modes (WGMs), where phycobiliproteins were employed as the active gain material. By exploiting microdroplets as a carrier for light-harvesting biomaterials, strong local electric field enhancement and photon confinement at the cavity interface resulted in significantly enhanced bio-photoelectricity. A threshold-like behavior was discovered in photocurrent enhancement and the WGM modulated fluorescence. Systematic studies of biologically produced photoelectricity and optical mode resonance were carried out to illustrate the impact of the cavity quality factor, structural geometry, and refractive indices. Finally, a biomimetic system was investigated by exploiting cascade energy transfer in phycobiliprotein assembly composed of three light-harvesting proteins. The key findings not only highlight the critical role of optical cavity in light-harvesting but also offer deep insights into light energy coupling in biomaterials.

Filterless narrowband near-infrared Si photodetector

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Liquid Crystal Biosensors: Principles, Structure and Applications

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Optofluidic devices with programmable and responsive functions

“…Dyed-doped LC droplets, which could self-assemble into a sphere, are adopted as WGM resonators. [259][260][261][262][263][264] Here four different commercially available dyes are used to represent four distinct colors, By utilizing the unique properties of dye-doped photonic resonators, anticounterfeiting tags with multiplexed microcavities are fabricated through the inkjet printing process. the WGM modulation from the original PL spectrum and converted to the corresponding photonic barcode.…”