Observation and Analysis of Self-Diffraction in Bacteriorhodopsin Films

High order self-diffraction is observed from a 5.2 OD570 thin film containing chemically enhanced bacteriorhodopsin. Up to fourteen diffracted orders (±7) could be discerned by eye at a laser intensity of 23 mW/cm2. The results for the first and second order diffracted beams are analyzed in terms of a modified form of the recent self-diffraction model proposed by Fragnito et al.[1].