Effects of the environment on the electric conductivity of double-stranded DNA molecules

We present a theoretical analysis of the effects of the environment on charge transport in double-stranded synthetic poly(G)-poly(C) DNA molecules attached to two ideal leads. Coupling of the DNA to the environment results in two effects: (i) localization of carrier functions due to static disorder...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Malyshev, Andrey, Díaz García, Elena, Domínguez-Adame Acosta, Francisco
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2009
País:España
Institución:Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)
Repositorio:Docta Complutense
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/45066
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/45066
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:538.9
Localized Frenkel excitons
Temperature-dependence
Radiative lifetime
Transport
Sequence
Statistics
Dynamics
Disorder
Chains
Length
Física de materiales
Descripción
Sumario:We present a theoretical analysis of the effects of the environment on charge transport in double-stranded synthetic poly(G)-poly(C) DNA molecules attached to two ideal leads. Coupling of the DNA to the environment results in two effects: (i) localization of carrier functions due to static disorder and (ii) phonon-induced scattering of the carriers between the localized states, resulting in hopping conductivity. A nonlinear Pauli master equation for populations of localized states is used to describe the hopping transport and calculate the electric current as a function of the applied bias. We demonstrate that, although the electronic gap in the density of states shrinks as the disorder increases, the voltage gap in the I-V characteristics becomes wider. A simple physical explanation of this effect is provided.