Thickness and low temperature conductivity of DNA molecules

A.Yu. Kasumov (1, 2, 3) , D. V. Klinov (4) , Philippe-Emmanuel Roche (1) , S. Gueron (1) , H. Bouchiat (1)

1 LPS - Laboratoire de Physique des Solides
2 Institute of Microelectronics Technology and High Purity Materials
3 RIKEN - RIKEN - Institute of Physical and Chemical Research [Japon]
4 Shemyakin-Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry

We argue that interaction between molecules and substrate is a key parameter which determines the conducting or insulating behavior of DNA molecules. In this letter, we show that strongly deformed DNA molecules deposited on a substrate, whose thickness is less than half the native thickness of the molecule, are insulating, whereas molecules keeping their native thickness are conducting down to very low temperature with a non-ohmic behavior characteristic of a 1D conductor with repulsive electron-electron interactions.

Domaines: Autre [cond-mat.other]

A.Yu. Kasumov, D. V. Klinov, Philippe-Emmanuel Roche, S. Gueron, H. Bouchiat. Thickness and low temperature conductivity of DNA molecules. Applied Physics Letters, 2004, 84 (6), pp.1007. ⟨10.1063/1.1644909⟩. ⟨hal-00598223⟩