Bacteria-based branched structures for bionanophotonics

Hongbao Xin, Yuchao Li and Baojun Li

Branched photonic structures have served as paramount important components for nanophotonic integration and circuitry. However, these structures are generally constructed with photonic and plasmonic nanowires, which are nonbiomaterials and often need to be specially engineered to interface with cells and biological system. For bionanophotonics, photonic components assembled with self-adaptive biomaterials are highly desirable to be directly interfaced with the dynamic biological system. In this work, branched structures for bionanophotonics assembled with natural living biomaterials, i.e., nanorod-shaped Escherichia coli bacteria are reported. The E. coli cells were orderly trapped using a specially desired tapered optical fiber, forming structures with different branches and lengths. Light-propagation performances along these branched structures were investigated, and the robustness property of the structures were demonstrated. The results show that the bacteria-based branched structures provide different promising self-sustainable and evolvable components, such as multidirectional waveguides and beam splitters, for bionanophotonics by connecting the biological and optical worlds with a seamless interface.

DOI