Top-Down Meets Bottom-Up: Dip-Pen Nanolithography and DNA-Directed Assembly of Nanoscale Electrical Circuits

摘要

Interfacing bottom-up chemical and biological assembly schemes with top-down lithography to fabricate complex devices is presently a major goal in nanoscience and technology. Bridging the gap between self-assembly techniques and modern top-down lithography offers a way to incorporate additional functionality (for example, in the form of chemical or biological recognition and sensing capabilities) into conventional electronic and optical devices, and provides a rapid means to test the potential viability of multiple chemically synthesized device components and self-assembly strategies. In this paper we present a method that allows multiple, independent chemical recognition events to be incorporated in close proximity in a single device. We focus on the problem of assembling specific metal nanoparticles into electrical junctions using DNA-directed assembly because we believe such an approach ultimately offers the opportunity to combine self-assembly and biosensor development with basic studies of electrical transport through biofunctionalized nanostructures.