Concepedia

Construction of highly conductive nanowires on a DNA template

Jan Richter, Michael Mertig, W. Pompe, Ingolf Mönch, Hans K. Schackert

Applied Physics Letters · 2001 · 354 citations · 22 references

TL;DR

The study measures electrical conductivity of palladium nanowires fabricated by depositing a thin continuous film onto single DNA molecules to provide electrical functionality. DNA strands were positioned between gold electrodes, metallized with palladium, and the resulting nanowires were pinned to the electrodes using electron‑beam‑induced carbon lines to achieve low‑resistance contacts. The nanowires displayed ohmic behavior at room temperature and had conductivities within one order of magnitude of bulk palladium, demonstrating DNA’s suitability as a template for miniaturized electrical circuits.

Abstract

We present measurements of the electrical conductivity of metallic nanowires which have been fabricated by chemical deposition of a thin continuous palladium film onto single DNA molecules to install electrical functionality. The DNA molecules have been positioned between macroscopic Au electrodes and are metallized afterwards. Low-resistance electrical interfacing was obtained by pinning the nanowires at the electrodes with electron-beam-induced carbon lines. The investigated nanowires exhibit ohmic transport behavior at room temperature. Their specific conductivity is only one order of magnitude below that of bulk palladium, confirming that DNA is an ideal template for the production of electric wires, which can be utilized for the bottom-up construction of miniaturized electrical circuits.