Native spider silk as a biological optical fiber.

Nolwenn Huby (1) , Véronique Vié (1) , Anne Renault (1) , Sylvie Beaufils (1) , Thierry Lefèvre (2) , François Paquet-Mercier (2) , Michel Pézolet (2) , Bruno Bêche (1)

1 IPR - Institut de Physique de Rennes
2 CERMA - Centre de Recherche sur les Matériaux Avancés

In this study, we demonstrate the use of eco-friendly native spider silk as an efficient optical fiber in air, highly bent fibers, and physiological liquid. We also integrated the silk filament in a photonic chip made of polymer microstructures fabricated by UV lithography. The molding process is non-destructive for silk and leads to an efficient micro-optical coupling between silk and synthetic optical structures. These optical performances combined with the unique biocompatibility, bioresorbability, flexibility, and tensile strength of silk filaments pave the way for new applications in biological media and for original biophotonic purposes.

Mots clés: bio-optics; integrated optics; microfabrication; micro-optics; moulding; optical fibre fabrication; optical polymers; tensile strength; ultraviolet lithography; Fabrication; cladding; and splicing; Fabrication techniques; lithography; pattern transfer

Domaines: Optique [physics.optics]

Nolwenn Huby, Véronique Vié, Anne Renault, Sylvie Beaufils, Thierry Lefèvre, et al.. Native spider silk as a biological optical fiber.. Applied Physics Letters, 2013, 102 (12), pp.123702. ⟨10.1063/1.4798552⟩. ⟨hal-00820827⟩