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. 2023 Oct 24;7(4):046105.
doi: 10.1063/5.0156463. eCollection 2023 Dec.

Investigations on artificially extending the spectral range of natural vision

Abhijith Krishnan  1 , C S Deepak  1 , K S Narayan
Affiliations

Investigations on artificially extending the spectral range of natural vision

Abhijith Krishnan et al. APL Bioeng. .

Abstract

Organic semiconductors are being explored as retinal prosthetics with the prime attributes of bio-compatibility and conformability for seamless integration with the retina. These polymer-based artificial photoreceptor films are self-powered with light-induced signal strength sufficient to elicit neuronal firing events. The molecular aspect of these semiconductors provides wide spectral tunability. Here, we present results from a bulk heterostructure semiconductor blend with a wide spectral response range. This combination elicits clear spiking activity from a developing blind-chick embryonic retina in the subretinal configuration in response to white light. The response is largely triggered by the blue-green spectral regime rather than the red-NIR regime for the present polymer semiconductor layer attributes.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts to disclose.

Figures

FIG. 1.
FIG. 1.
(a) Chemical structure of DPP and (b) IT4F. (c) The normalized absorbance and responsivity (peak rms photocurrent =  11 mA/W) profile of the ITO/BHJ/electrolyte device. The responsivity was measured using a lock-in amplifier and a halogen lamp as the source. The light intensity was normalized using a Si photodiode. (d) Vph(t) of the ITO/BHJ/electrolyte structure for blue ( λ=450 nm), red ( λ=630 nm), and white LEDs with power in the range of 50–100 μW/cm−2; square pulse indicates LED ON and OFF.
FIG. 2.
FIG. 2.
(a) Band-pass filtered data ( 300–3000 Hz) showing elicited spiking activity from RGCs on two representative electrodes, white LED top electrode and blue LED ( λ=425 nm) bottom for a BHJ coupled E12 retina, the square pulse shows the ON and OFF of the LED. (b) Firing rate of two putative RGCs to a 1s flash of white light (bin size = 50 ms). Inset shows the inter-spike interval (ISI). (c) Raster plot of the response of the first RGC in (b) to 12 trials of the 1 s white light stimuli. (d) A schematic showing the developing chick retina coupled to DPP-IT4F BHJ placed on the MEA with light shining from the bottom.
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