Electronic transport through renormalized DNA chains

Abstract

DNA have presented through experiments great variability in terms of its electronic characteristics. They have shown that it can acquire the behavior of a conductor, semiconductor or insulator, making it a good candidate for replicating at the mesoscopic scale electronic devices. In the present work, the quantum transmission coefficient is calculated for DNA chains of various lengths with the use of the decimation and renormalization procedure, within the tight binding approximation and the Lippmann-Schwinger scattering theory. Transmission-Energy profiles were obtained, which helped to infer electronic transport properties of the system, Additionally, the current-voltage relation for a 30-pairs chain was calculated as well, and compared with the experimental results of Porath et al. Results show the semiconductor characteristics of the molecule, and a resemblance with the work of Porath, showing the quality of the procedure and the model utilized.

Keywords

• DNA
• Electronic transport
• Electrical current
• Transmittance.