Nanoscale Study of Quantum Criticality in Single Protein Molecules
Abstract
Recent single-molecule measurements have shown that proteins are remarkably good electronic conductors, observations that enable a whole new class of single molecule sensors and sequencing devices. Over distances > 5 nm proteins are far better conductors than the best synthetic molecular wires, despite the large distances between aromatic residues in proteins. A possible explanation for this unexpected conductivity lies with electronic structure calculations that indicate that proteins may have evolved a rather special "Quantum Critical" geometry, lying right at the metal-insulator transition as a function of the degree of disorder of the system. We will use recombinantly engineered protein wires to probe the geometry dependence of this conductivity, measuring single molecules in solid state devices characterized at the atomic level by aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy. Our studies show that this conductance is a quite general phenomenon, and a fundamental understanding of it should enable completely new approaches to self-assembling atomic-scale electronics and to building a universal "omics" platform for diagnosis and threat detection.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Aug 31, 2020
- Source ID
- W911NF2010320
Entities
People
- Stuart Lindsay
Organizations
- Arizona State University
- Army Contracting Command
- United States Army