SBIR Phase I: Novel Optical Recording Materials

Smithey这个小企业创新研究第一阶段项目旨在开发新型光学材料，这种材料坚固耐用，可重复使用，价格低廉，光学性能优于现有材料。一种具有竞争力的、经济上可行的材料所需要的特性是良好的光敏性、暴露在光下材料特性（如吸光度或折射率）的大变化、无擦除读取能力、长记录寿命、抗疲劳性和可擦除性。目前的材料，如光聚合物和相变材料不能满足所有这些要求。该方法将改变一种新的生物材料，细菌视紫红质（BR），以满足光学记录材料的灵敏度要求。在之前的工作中，Bend Research和其他人已经证明了BR在光学记录方面的潜力，并表明它满足了所有其他必要的材料要求。提高BR材料的灵敏度是开发广泛应用的BR基光学记录材料的关键。具有更高灵敏度的BR材料的开发将为许多大型市场提供产品开发，包括光学相关、模式识别、光学数据存储、指纹识别、神经网络和多媒体存储。＊＊＊

*** 9761611 Smithey This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project is directed toward development of new optical materials that are robust, reusable, and inexpensive and have optical properties superior to those of current materials. The required properties for a competitive, economically viable material are good light Sensitivity, large change in a material property (e.g., absorbance or refractive index) upon exposure to light, read-without-erase capability, long recording lifetime, fatigue resistance, and erasability. Current materials - e.g., photopolymers and phase-change materials not satisfy all of these requirements. The approach will be to alter a novel biological material, bacteriorhodopsin (BR), to meet the sensitivity requirements for optical-recording materials. In previous work, Bend Research and others have demonstrated the potential of BR for optical recording and have shown it meets all of the other necessary material requirements. Improvements in the sensitivity of BR materials is the key advance remaining to be achieved in the development of a practical BR-based optical-recording material for a wide range of applications. Development of a BR material with improved sensitivity would enable product development for many large markets, including optical correlation, pattern recognition, optical-data storage, fingerprint identification, neural networks, and multimedia storage. ***