Electro-Optical Imaging Microscopy of Dye-Doped Artificial Lipidic Membranes

Bassam Hajj (1) , Sophie de Reguardati (2) , Loic Hugonin (2) , Bruno Le Pioufle (3) , Toshihisa Osaki (4) , Hiroaki Suzuki (5) , Shoji Takeuchi (4) , Halina Mojzisova (1) , Dominique Chauvat (1) , Joseph Zyss (1)

1 LPQM - Laboratoire de Photonique Quantique et Moléculaire
2 SATIE - Systèmes et Applications des Technologies de l'Information et de l'Energie
3 SATIE-BIOMIS - Bio-MIcroSystèmes et BioSensors
4 LIMMS - Laboratory for Integrated Micro Mechatronics Systems
5 IIS - Institute of Industrial Sciences

Artificial lipidic bilayer is widely used as a model of lipid matrix of biological cell membranes. We use the Pockels effect to study the electro-optical properties of an artificial lipidic membrane doped with nonlinear molecules inserted to one leaflet of the bilayer. We report what is believed to be the first electro-optical Pockels signal from such a membrane. The membrane is imaged and the signal as a function of potential difference is studied. A theoretical analysis taking into account the orientation distribution of the inserted dye molecules allows us to estimate the doped membrane nonlinearity. Potential applications to study living cell membranes are discussed.

Domaines: Micro et nanotechnologies/Microélectronique

Bassam Hajj, Sophie de Reguardati, Loic Hugonin, Bruno Le Pioufle, Toshihisa Osaki, et al.. Electro-Optical Imaging Microscopy of Dye-Doped Artificial Lipidic Membranes. Biophysical Journal, 2009, 97 (11), pp.2913-2921. ⟨10.1016/j.bpj.2009.08.055⟩. ⟨hal-00599955⟩