Some industrial uses of living cells involve genetic engineering or modification of cell’s external properties. However, these techniques commonly have high financial costs, do not take advantage of the natural properties of the cells, and have few applications in the photonics area. As the first technological application of living liquid crystals, we propose an all-passive optical diode using Bacillus subtilis , chromonic liquid crystal, and silver nanorods. These three elements comprise a living liquid crystal doped with nanorods that produces a spatial inversion asymmetric system, facilitating the passage of light in one direction and hampering it in the opposite one. Solving Maxwell’s equation numerically for this system, we found optical rectification for light’s intensity up to $$1700\%$$ 1700 % . Such diodes can be the primary units for an all-passive optical film and other nonreciprocal systems.

中文翻译：

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使用掺杂银纳米棒的活性液晶的全无源光学二极管

活细胞的一些工业用途涉及基因工程或细胞外部特性的修改。然而，这些技术通常具有很高的财务成本，没有利用电池的自然特性，并且在光子学领域几乎没有应用。作为活体液晶的第一个技术应用，我们提出了一种使用枯草芽孢杆菌、发色液晶和银纳米棒的全无源光学二极管。这三种元素包括一种掺杂有纳米棒的活性液晶，该液晶可产生空间反转不对称系统，促进光在一个方向上通过而在相反方向上阻碍它。对该系统进行数值求解麦克斯韦方程，我们发现光强度的光学校正高达 $1700\%$$ 1​​700 % 。