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Optoelectronic control of surface charge and translocation dynamics in solid-state nanopores

Nature Nanotechnology volume 8, pages 946–951 (2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

Nanopores can be used to detect and analyse biomolecules. However, controlling the translocation speed of molecules through a pore is difficult, which limits the wider application of these sensors. Here, we show that low-power visible light can be used to control surface charge in solid-state nanopores and can influence the translocation dynamics of DNA and proteins. We find that laser light precisely focused at a nanopore can induce reversible negative surface charge densities as high as 1 C m−2, and that the effect is tunable on submillisecond timescales by adjusting the photon density. By modulating the surface charge, we can control the amount of electroosmotic flow through the nanopore, which affects the speed of translocating biomolecules. In particular, a few milliwatts of green light can reduce the translocation speed of double-stranded DNA by more than an order of magnitude and the translocation speed of small globular proteins such as ubiquitin by more than two orders of magnitude. The laser light can also be used to unclog blocked pores. Finally, we discuss a mechanism to account for the observed optoelectronic phenomenon.

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Figure 1: The photoconductive effect in solid-state nanopores.
Figure 2: Slowing down DNA and protein translocation speed with light.
Figure 3: Ionic current enhancement as a function of laser power and pore diameter.
Figure 4: Light-induced surface charge density modulates the EOF and DNA translocation speed.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge support for this work from the National Institutes of Health (NHGRI grant no. R01 HG-005871), from the Marie Curie People award (GA-2010-277060, ERC) and from the Israeli Centers of Research Excellence (I-CORE) programme (Center #1902/12). The authors also thank the staff at the Harvard University Center for Nanoscale Sciences (CNS) and the Technion Electron Microscopy Center for dedicated support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, 02215, Massachusetts, USA

    Nicolas Di Fiori, Allison Squires & Amit Meller

  2. Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, 32000, Israel

    Daniel Bar, Tal Gilboa & Amit Meller

  3. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Boston University, Boston, 02215, Massachusetts, USA

    Theodore D. Moustakas

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  1. Nicolas Di Fiori
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Contributions

N.D.F. and A.M. conceived and designed the experiments. N.D.F., D.B. and T.G. performed the experiments. A.S. drilled all pores. N.D.F., A.S., D.B., T.G. and A.M. analysed the data. N.D.F., T.D.M. and A.M. developed the model. N.D.F., A.S., D.B., T.G., T.D.M. and A.M. co-wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to Amit Meller.

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Di Fiori, N., Squires, A., Bar, D. et al. Optoelectronic control of surface charge and translocation dynamics in solid-state nanopores. Nature Nanotech 8, 946–951 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2013.221

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