Regensburg 2013 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 26: Posters: Biomaterials and Biopolymers (joint with CPP)

BP 26.8: Poster

Wednesday, March 13, 2013, 17:30–19:30, Poster C

Electrical transport through self-assembled DNA superlattices — •Carlos Paez and Peter Schulz — Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas Brazil

DNA has emerged as a versatile material for self-assembled molecular structures due to its intrinsic characteristics. Several proof concepts of regular two dimensional self-assembled DNA structures have been reported in the literature. Nevertheless, the electronic and transport properties of such systems remain unexplored. In this work we numerically investigate the transport properties of two dimensional square superlattice patterns build from two different DNA sequences (telomeric and random) by means of an effective tight binding model for the electronic structure, while the current is obtained within a Green’s function framework. We show that the self-assembled square lattice structures based on telomeric DNA strands show current-voltage characteristics which make the system eligible for nanoelectronic applications. On the other hand, structures based on disordered sequences show currents that quickly go to undetectable ranges with increasing size. The robust plateau structures due to telomeric sequences are superimposed by additional features due to the DNA square superlattice. For the random sequencing case, interesting percolation mechanisms variations are observed, dependent on the competition between the localization length and the distance between the crosses in the self-assembled square superlattice structures.