Bacteriorhodopsin optical switch

A novel bacteriorhodopsin based photonic crossbar system for broadband communications is proposed. This free-space dynamically reconfigurable NxN crossbar switch utilizes an intelligent holographic system for routing and switching by dynamically reconfigurable gratings of bacteriorhodopsin, which has high write/read photocyclicity that is greater than 10⁶. The major advantages of the system include large interconnectivity density, transparent data redistribution, and fiber optic bandwidth capacity. In addition, the switching device resolves optical-to-electronic and electronic-to- optical conversion bottlenecks and reduces signal-to-noise degradation which is due to the conversions. This crossbar design is completely free of internal blocking which is one of the major drawbacks of guided optical crossbars. The system takes advantage of the parallelism and multidimensionality inherent in optics and can be scaled to a large capacity of NxN, while it maintains a low weight and portability which are a projected requirement for future broadband communications.