Integrating Vibrio natriegens for Photon Manipulation in Living Lighting Devices

Photon manipulation with bacteria is an emerging field in photonics (lasers, bio-imaging, and cell-sensing) and optoelectronics (bacterial-hybrid light-emitting diodes (BaHLEDs) and photovoltaics). In BaHLEDs, living photon down-conversion filters based on the direct use of bacteria in optically desirable hydrophobic and/or waterless coatings have not been realized yet. Herein, we put forward a simple concept: the engineering of fluorescent Vibrio natriegens (V. natriegens) that enable easy-to-prepare, untreated bacteria-silicone filters for the first red-emitting BaHLEDs. More specifically, we have rationalized genetic and material engineering tools to optimize i) the protein production time with a 1.7-fold enhanced volumetric productivity compared to E. coli with the same spectroscopic quality for the fluorescent protein (FP) DsRed, ii) the straightforward fabrication of highly emissive and stable V. natriegens-silicones, and iii) device reproducibility and performance to reach competitive devices with stabilities ranging from a few days up to weeks depending on device working conditions and architectures. Overall, this work sets in bacterial photon down-conversion using V. natriegens directly as a viable and more straightforward concept toward further advances in living lighting applications.