Quantitative study of the effect of coverage on the hybridization efficiency of surface-bound DNA nanostructures.

We demonstrate that, contrary to current understanding, the density of probe molecules is not responsible for the lack of hybridization in high density single-stranded DNA (ss-DNA) self-assembled monolayers (SAMs). To this end, we use nanografting to fabricate well packed ss-DNA nanopatches within a "carpet matrix" SAM of inert thiols on gold surfaces. The DNA surface density is varied by changing the "writing" parameters, for example, tip speed, and number of scan lines.