Dynamics of DNA Through Solid-state Nanopores Fabricated by Controlled Dielectric Breakdown.

Controlled dielectric breakdown (CDB) is gaining popularity for fabricating solid-state nanopores in situ with size control in a simple, low-cost, and scalable way. This technique could be used for a broad type of applications in the field of nucleic acid analysis and even for protein studies. In this work, we studied the entry and transport of double-stranded DNAs using a solid-state nanopore fabricated by CDB as a function of applied voltage for two different DNA lengths. We showed that the blockade rate increases exponentially with voltage up to 120 mV. The energy barrier depends on the chain length, and the dwell times decrease with applied voltage up to 120 mV. Moreover, no matter the chain length, it is possible to differentiate two families of blockade amplitudes, high and low ones, due to DNA folding.