Biooptical computing and molecular optoelectronics

Abstract

Molecular electronics and biocomputing has hitherto mainly concentrated upon the electron as the mobile information carrier. In parallel with the development of optoelectronics and optical computing, one can also envisage the emergence of molecular optoelectronics and biooptical computing, in which the photon is the mobile element. The scope for exploiting optical biomolecules in optical information processing devices is likely to be far more extensive than the potential range of electron-based devices, since there are far more natural molecular assemblies responding to photons compared with the number of those involving electrons. Even some comparatively lowly single-celled organisms have molecular machinery enabling them to respond to light,1 and most multicellular creatures have some form of eye, whereas electric organs are essentially restricted to a few species of fish. Here we exclude the electrically charged ion; bionic devices comprise the central and peripheral nervous systems possessed by all multicellular animals.