Electrical Transport Measurements through Single DNA Molecules

The field of Nano-electronics concentrates a lot of interest from technological and scientific points of view. While charge transport in the solid state has been widely researched, for large single molecules many fundamental questions remain unsolved.

DNA is a good model molecule for many polymeric systems. Charge transport along DNA molecules has attracted scientific interest for over half a century. However, due to the many free parameters concerning these experiments, a variety of results were achieved, triggering an ongoing scientific debate on the DNA molecule conductivity. Our goal in this research is to reveal the charge transport mechanisms by controlled elucidation of the affecting parameters.

We have developed an experimental system for measurements of individual DNA molecules in a very precise and well defined manner with minimum number of experimental uncertainties. Preliminary measurements of 100bp dsDNA molecules with random and ordered sequences show unusually high currents and complex temperatures dependence, leading to new insights regarding the transport mechanism, which will be presented.