An exciton-polariton laser based on biologically produced fluorescent protein

Dietrich, Christof P.; Steude, Anja; Tropf, Laura Christine; Schubert, Marcel; Kronenberg, Nils M.; Ostermann, Kai; Höfling, Sven; Gather, Malte C.

doi:10.1126/sciadv.1600666

Cited by 182 publications

(225 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…have triggered extensive research in using FPs as active material for photon 6,8 or polariton lasing experiments 9 . Those experiments revealed that microcavities filled with fluorescent protein show extremely low lasing thresholds and remarkable photostability compared to other fluorescent dyes 9 . Those advantages originate from the molecular structure of FPs, which is unique among organic dyes.…”

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confidence: 99%

Exciton dynamics in solid-state green fluorescent protein

Dietrich

Siegert

Betzold

et al. 2017

Applied Physics Letters

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We study the decay characteristics of Frenkel excitons in solid-state enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) dried from solution. We further monitor the changes of the radiative exciton decay over time by crossing the phase transition from the solved to the solid state. Complex interactions between protonated and deprotonated states in solid-state eGFP can be identified from temperature-dependent and time-resolved fluorescence experiments that further allow the determination of activation energies for each identified process.Keywords: fluorescent proteins; exciton dynamics; proton transferIn the last two decades, fluorescent proteins (FPs) have revolutionized many different areas of research. In particular biology, medicine and physiology are probably the uttermost affected. Their sublime photophysical and biochemical properties have created new eras of investigations such as live-cell 1 and super-resolution imaging 2 and have fundamentally changed research disciplines such as molecular biology and cell biology. FPs are most commonly used as biological markers or fluorescent probes in living organisms. FPs have therein enabled the investigation of nerve cell developments or cancer cell spreadings 3 . Those seminal advancements are first and foremost related to the ability to express FPs in any possible cell type without affecting intrinsic cell properties which is due to the fact that FP chromophores can be formed by autocatalytic cyclization without the need of a cofactor 4 . Combined with an excellent photophysical stability, FPs have become one of the most important tools in bioscience.Another interesting development has taken place in recent years in the research areas of semiconductor physics and organic photonics and might lead to a second revolution triggered by fluorescent proteins. The persistent seek for new emerging materials in optics and photonics has identified FPs in their solid state as promising bright and stable light emitters in photonic structures such as optical microcavities 6,7 . Especially their spectral characteristics (self-absorption, optical gain etc.) have triggered extensive research in using FPs as active material for photon 6,8 or polariton lasing experiments 9 . Those experiments revealed that microcavities filled with fluorescent protein show extremely low lasing thresholds and remarkable photostability compared to other fluorescent dyes 9 . Those advantages originate from the molecular structure of FPs, which is unique among organic dyes. The chromophore is basically surrounded by a protecting layer a) Electronic mail: christof.dietrich@physik.uni-wuerzburg.de of β-sheets, effectively forming a barrel (see Fig.1(a)). This barrel-like geometry ensures a strong reduction of concentration-induced luminescence quenching related to singlet-singlet annihilation and largely suppresses bimolecular quenching at high excitation densities 9 . It further maintains a fixed distance between neighboring chromophores in its solid state and thus supports efficient energy transfer between nex...

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confidence: 99%

Exciton dynamics in solid-state green fluorescent protein

Dietrich

Siegert

Betzold

et al. 2017

Applied Physics Letters

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“…Hypothesizing that this pattern originates from a superposition of a multitude of simpler modes, we again applied hyperspectral imaging of the microcavity emission, this time in combination with Fourier imaging to also monitor the angular characteristics of the emission. [12] The spectrally and angle-resolved Fourier image of the microcavity emission (Figure 4c) reveals that indeed a variety of optical modes are confined within the photonic dispersion of the cavity resonance (indicated by white dashed line). All confined pillar modes were dispersionless.…”

Section: Doi: 101002/adma201605236mentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Hence, we do not expect to observe strong light-matter interaction effects as was the case previously for similar microcavities filled with the protein eGFP where we optimized for strong spectral overlap between the protein absorption and the stop band of the dielectric mirror. [12] When measuring the local reflectivity of the microcavity containing the unbleached protein film we observe distinct cavity resonances (cavity modes, CM; red line in Figure 1c). The quality factors of these modes range between 300 and 1000.…”

Section: Doi: 101002/adma201605236mentioning

confidence: 98%

“…[7] This has allowed demonstration of low threshold lasers [8][9][10][11] and more recently formation of exciton-polariton condensation at room temperature under nanosecond excitation. [12] Here, we demonstrate an approach for direct on-demand writing of photonic structures in thin films of FPs. Our approach exploits the usually unwanted effect of photobleaching which occurs in organic emitters upon excitation with high power lasers.…”

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Molding Photonic Boxes into Fluorescent Emitters by Direct Laser Writing

et al. 2017

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There is a rapidly increasing interest in the photonics research community to develop methods for immediate and on-demand fabrication of complex photonic structures. This is motivated by a desire to tailor the properties of components like interconnects, waveguides or cavities to specific but varying requirements. Due to their versatility and flexibility, organic materials are highly promising candidates for achieving this goal and a number of fabrication methods such as direct laser writing by two-photon polymerization [1][2][3] or direct circuit printing [4] have been suggested and are now developing rapidly.Biologically produced fluorescent proteins (FPs) represent a special class of organic emitter materials. Due to their unique molecular structure, which comprises a highly fluorescent chromophore unit surrounded by a protective molecular bumper (β-barrel), [5,6] the chromophores are well protected from their surrounding and FPs are largely immune to concentration quenching. [7] This has allowed demonstration of low threshold lasers [8][9][10][11] and more recently formation of exciton-polariton condensation at room temperature under nanosecond excitation. [12] Here, we demonstrate an approach for direct on-demand writing of photonic structures in thin films of FPs. Our approach exploits the usually unwanted effect of photobleaching which occurs in organic emitters upon excitation with high power lasers. In addition to the local loss of fluorescence, the bleaching also induces a local change in refractive index of the active organic material which allows us to introduce inplane spatial confinement and guiding of photons in the active organic layer. Based on this principle, we demonstrate stimulated emission in three-dimensionally confined photonic modes and achieve lasing thresholds one order of magnitude lower than in planar unstructured reference devices. As the active FP in our microcavities, we use tdTomato, a tandem dimer protein, in which each molecule is formed by four β-barrels, each containing a chromophore at its center. The four barrels are arranged in pairs connected by a linker. tdTomato is one of the most widely used FPs and due to its large absorption coefficient (138 000 m −1 cm −1 ) and high fluorescence quantum yield (0.6) [13] it offers high brightness and has proven to be well suited to generate lasing. [7] Figure 1a shows the fluorescence of a tdTomato thin film (thickness, 500 nm) on a glass substrate when excited by an optical parametric oscillator (OPO) system with 530 nm nanosecond pulses of light with increasing pulse energy (2 µm spot size). There is a clear linear increase of the fluorescence with increasing pump pulse energy over a range of more than four orders of magnitude (from 1 nJ to 10 µJ per pulse). This proves that tdTomato films offer excellent photostability in the range required for lasing from tdTomato (reported lasing thresholds range between 1 and 1000 nJ). [7] However, for excitation energies larger than 10 µJ, the excitation-dependent fluorescence flattens and abo...

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“…As polariton lasing does not necessarily rely on population inversion, thresholds up to two magnitudes below conventional VCSEL devices are possible 10 . Adding the fact that condensation can be observed at room temperature in semiconductors like GaN 11 , ZnO 12 and organic materials [13][14][15] , this makes the polariton laser an attractive next generation device. For many future applications, an electrical injection scheme is a necessary prerequisite 16,17 .…”

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Electrical and optical switching in the bistable regime of an electrically injected polariton laser

et al. 2017

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We report on electrically and non-resonant optically induced switching in the bistable regime of an electrically pumped polariton laser. Electrical switching effects can be observed by adding controlled noise in the electrical pump of the system. Noise is expected to influence the hysteresis characteristics of a bistable device and determines its application robustness. We find that the hysteresis width decreases symmetrically with a linear dependency until we observe a quenching of the bistability at a certain noise level and the output of the system becomes monostable. Furthermore, we explore the possibility to switch between the two bistable branches by a non-resonant optical pulse. Our experimental findings can be described by a set of rate equations modeling the population dynamics with additional noise terms.

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An exciton-polariton laser based on biologically produced fluorescent protein

Abstract: Microcavities filled with biologically produced green fluorescent protein show polariton condensation at room temperature.

Cited by 182 publications

References 37 publications

Exciton dynamics in solid-state green fluorescent protein

Exciton dynamics in solid-state green fluorescent protein

Molding Photonic Boxes into Fluorescent Emitters by Direct Laser Writing

Electrical and optical switching in the bistable regime of an electrically injected polariton laser

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