Metallic conduction through engineered DNA: DNA nanoelectronic building blocks.

A novel way of engineering DNA molecules involves substituting the imino proton of each base pair with a metal ion to obtain M-DNA with altered electronic properties. We report the first direct evidence of metalliclike conduction through 15 microm long M-DNA. In contrast, measurements on B-DNA give evidence of semiconducting behavior with a few hundred meV band gap at room temperature.

Electronic transport in Y-junction carbon nanotubes.

Electronic transport measurements were performed on Y-junction carbon nanotubes. These novel junctions contain a large diameter tube branched into smaller ones. Independent measurements using good quality contacts on both individual Y junctions and many in parallel show intrinsic nonlinear transport and reproducible rectifying behavior at room temperature.