Superconducting DNA
DNA origami helped assemble superconducting nanowires
Their length is only about 200 nanometers
Physicists have figured out how to use DNA origami technology to produce superconducting nanowires of arbitrary shape and length. Thanks to this, perhaps they can be used for the production of nanoelectronics. An article with the experimental results was published by the scientific journal AIP Advances (Shani et al., DNA origami based superconducting nanowires).
In recent years, scientists have identified many organic compounds that can replace silicon and other semiconductors in computer chips. Many similar compounds are already used in the development of LED and liquid crystal displays, sensors and various medical and scientific devices.
At the same time, it turned out to be much more difficult to synthesize organic molecules that could conduct current and thereby replace metals. For example, scientists found one such substance only three years ago. It is an integrin protein that covers the surface of human cells. It turned out that its fragments can conduct current almost without loss.
Researchers from Israel and the USA have recently discovered that DNA molecules with metal nanoparticles attached to them can be used as a framework for complex composite superconductors. They wanted to combine such technology with DNA origami. This is the name of the method by which single DNA strands can be used to assemble complex three-dimensional structures that can move, interact with environmental objects and solve various practical problems.
Scientists have suggested that DNA origami can be used to create a technology that will allow assembling nanowires of arbitrary shape, length and size. To do this, a physicist from Bar-Ilan University, Lior Shani, and his colleagues assembled several nanowires about 200 nm long and 25 nm thick.
Scientists attached this structure to the surface of a special nanoconstruction, which consisted of a silicon substrate and two superconducting electrodes, and then studied the physical properties of the nanowire.
"Conventional superconductors conduct current without loss at ultra-low temperatures. This is not typical for nanowires, since quantum fluctuations occur inside them, which destroy the superconducting state. We suppressed these fluctuations with powerful magnetic fields, which reduced the resistance of the nanowires by 90%," explained Shani.
The successful completion of experiments with these nanostructures, according to Israeli physicists, opens the way for the use of superconductors in nanoelectronics and for the development of new scientific and industrial devices, including ultra-sensitive magnetic field sensors, quantum signal amplifiers and various sensors.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru