Active control of growth mode of organic molecules by femtosecond laser

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K13380
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Optical engineering, Photon science
• Research Institution: Osaka University
• Principal Investigator: MORI YUSUKE 大阪大学, 工学研究科, 教授 (90252618)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 高野 和文 京都府立大学, 生命環境科学研究科, 教授 (40346185) ; 吉川 洋史 埼玉大学, 理工学研究科, 准教授 (50551173)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 光プロセシング / タンパク質結晶

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We investigated the principle of “an approach for promoting the growth of protein crystals by directly switching the crystal growth mode by femtosecond laser ablation”. We demonstrated that protein crystals with surfaces that are locally etched by femtosecond laser ablation show enhanced growth rates without losing crystal quality. There were appropriate laser irradiation conditions (especially the total pulse number) depending on materials. Fewer laser pulse number could not induce a spiral growth, contrary too many laser pulse number induced also poly crystals. Optical phase-sensitive microscopy and X-ray topography imaging techniques revealed that the local etching induces a screw dislocation then a spiral growth began from the screw dislocation. These findings prove that femtosecond laser ablation can actively switch the crystal growth mode, offering flexible control over the size and shape of protein crystals.

Free Research Field

総合理工