NANOGAP ELECTRICAL DETECTION OF SINGLE MOLECULES TRANSLOCATING THROUGH A NANOCHANNEL WITH TRANSVERSE NANOELECTRODES AND FUNNELS POPULATED WITH AN ARRAY OF NANOPILLARS

Abstract

We are developing techniques for the fabrication of mixed-scale systems (nm to mm) used for the molecular-scale sensing of single-molecules (DNAs, RNAs, peptides and proteins). The system consists of microchannels and nanochannels (10-100 nm) with integrated electrodes of similar dimensions for transducing single molecules. The system is applicable for the rapid and efficient sequencing of biopolymers by measuring flight-times of monomer units clipped from a single polymer. Preliminary results from calculations and Molecular Dynamic (MD) simulations have supported the viability of our system.