Optical properties of bio-inspired peptide nanotubes

Supramolecular self-assembled bio-inspired peptide nanostructures are favorable to be implemented in diverse nanophotonics applications due to their superior physical properties such as wideband optical transparency, high second-order nonlinear response, waveguiding properties and more. Here, we focus on the optical properties found in di-phenylalanine peptide nano-architectures, with special emphasize on their linear and nonlinear optical waveguiding effects. Using both simulation and experiments, we show their ability to passively guide light at both fundamental and second-harmonic frequencies. In addition, we show that at elevated temperatures, 140-180°C, these native supramolecular structures undergo irreversible thermally induced transformation via re-assembling into completely new thermodynamically stable phase having nanofiber morphology similar to those of amyloid fibrils. In this new phase, the peptide nanofibers lose their second-order nonlinear response, while exhibit profound modification of optoelectronic properties followed by the appearance of visible (blue and green) photoluminescence (PL). Our study propose a new generation of multifunctional optical waveguides with variety of characteristics, which self-assembled into 1D-elongated nanostructures and could be used as building blocks of many integrated photonic devices.