Thickness and low-temperature conductivity of DNA molecules

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Abstract
On constate une forte corrélation entre la conductivité de l'ADN et son affaissement sur le substrat. Cette observation pourrait expliquer la disparité extreme des mesures de conductivités rapportées dans la littérature.International audienceWe argue that interaction between molecules and substrate is a key parameter which determines the conducting or insulating behavior of DNA molecules. In this letter, we show that strongly deformed DNA molecules deposited on a substrate, whose thickness is less than half the native thickness of the molecule, are insulating, whereas molecules keeping their native thickness are conducting down to very low temperature with a non-ohmic behavior characteristic of a 1D conductor with repulsive electron-electron interactions