%0 Journal Article
%T Strong Electroİ\Optic Effect and Spontaneous Domain Formation in Selfİ\Assembled Peptide Structures
%A Amir Handelman
%A Barak Gilboa
%A Cl¨Ĥment Lafargue
%A Gil Rosenman
%A Joseph Zyss
%A Linda J. W. Shimon
%J Archive of "Advanced Science".
%D 2017
%R 10.1002/advs.201700052
%X Short peptides made from repeating units of phenylalanine selfİ\assemble into a remarkable variety of microİ\ and nanostructures including tubes, tapes, spheres, and fibrils. These bioİ\organic structures are found to possess striking mechanical, electrical, and optical properties, which are rarely seen in organic materials, and are therefore shown useful for diverse applications including regenerative medicine, targeted drug delivery, and biocompatible fluorescent probes. Consequently, finding new optical properties in these materials can significantly advance their practical use, for example, by allowing new ways to visualize, manipulate, and utilize them in new, in vivo, sensing applications. Here, by leveraging a unique electroİ\optic phase microscopy technique, combined with traditional structural analysis, it is measured in diİ\ and triphenylalanine peptide structures a surprisingly large electroİ\optic response of the same order as the best performing inorganic crystals. In addition, spontaneous domain formation is observed in triphenylalanine tapes, and the origin of their electroİ\optic activity is unveiled to be related to a porous triclinic structure, with extensive antiparallel betaİ\sheet arrangement. The strong electroİ\optic response of these porous peptide structures with the capability of hosting guest molecules opens the door to create new biocompatible, environmental friendly functional materials for electroİ\optic applications, including biomedical imaging, sensing, and optical manipulation
%K domain formation
%K guest molecules
%K peptide structures
%K Pockels effect
%K selfİ\assembly
%U https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5604517/