Electrical Conduction through Poly(dA)-Poly(dT) and Poly(dG)-Poly(dC) DNA Molecules

K.-H. Yoo; D. H. Ha; J.-O. Lee; J. W. Park; Jinhee Kim; J. J. Kim; H.-Y. Lee; T. Kawai; Han Yong Choi

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.87.198102

Electrical Conduction through Poly(dA)-Poly(dT) and Poly(dG)-Poly(dC) DNA Molecules

K.-H. Yoo, D. H. Ha, J.-O. Lee, J. W. Park, Jinhee Kim, J. J. Kim, H.-Y. Lee, T. Kawai, and Han Yong Choi

Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 198102 – Published 23 October 2001

Abstract

We report direct measurements of electrical transport through poly(dA)-poly(dT) and poly(dG)-poly(dC) DNA molecules containing identical base pairs. The observed experimental results suggest that electrical transport through DNA molecules occurs by polaron hopping. We have also investigated the effect of gate voltage on the current-voltage curve. It demonstrates the possibility of a DNA field-effect transistor operating at room temperature. Moreover, the gate-voltage dependent transport measurements show that poly(dA)-poly(dT) behaves as an $n$ -type semiconductor, whereas poly(dG)-poly(dC) behaves as a $p$ -type semiconductor.

Received 7 April 2001

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.87.198102

Authors & Affiliations

K.-H. Yoo^1,*, D. H. Ha¹, J.-O. Lee^1,2, J. W. Park¹, Jinhee Kim¹, J. J. Kim², H.-Y. Lee³, T. Kawai³, and Han Yong Choi⁴

¹Electronic Devices Group, Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science, Yusung, P.O. Box 102, Taejon 305-600, Korea
²Department of Physics, Chonbuk National University, Chonju 561-756, Korea
³The Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research, Osaka University, Osaka 567-0047, Japan
⁴Department of Physics, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 440-746, Korea