Bacteriorhodopsin for superficial X-ray sensing

Bacteriorhodopsin is a proton-pump protein in the cell membrane of Halobacterium salinarium. Unlike many other biomaterials, bacteriorhodopsin keeps most of its physical, chemical and electrical properties in the dry thin film form. This makes bacteriorhodopsin an excellent candidate for fabrication of electro-mechanical devices in the scale of micrometer and possibly nanometer. In this paper, we report on employing a film of dry oriented bacteriorhodopsin for sensing kilovoltage (kV) energy X-ray beam.