Dielectrophoretic stretching of DNA tethered to a fiber tip
by Hyun, C.; Kaur, H.; McNabb, D. S.; Li, J. L.
In this work, we studied the stretching of. phage DNA molecules immobilized on an optical fiber tip attached to a force sensitive tuning fork under ac electric fields. We designed a two electrodes stretching system in a small chamber: one is a gold-coated optical fiber tip electrode, and the other is a gold-coated flat electrode. By applying a dielectrophoretic (DEP) force, the immobilized. DNA molecules on the tip are stretched and the stretching process is monitored by a fluorescent microscope. The DNA stretching in three-dimensional space is optimized by varying electrode shape, electrode gap distance, ac frequency, and solution conductivity. By observing the vibrational amplitude change of a quartz tuning fork, we measured the effects due to Joule heating and the DEP force on the tethered DNA molecules in solution. This work demonstrates a method to manipulate and characterize immobilized. DNA molecules on a probe tip for further study of single DNA molecules.
- Journal
- Nanotechnology
- Volume
- 26
- Issue
- 12
- Year
- 2015
- URL
- https://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0957-4484/26/12/125501
- ISBN/ISSN
- 1361-6528; 0957-4484
- DOI
- 10.1088/0957-4484/26/12/125501