Conductance of DNA molecules: Effects of decoherence and bonding

TL;DR

This paper investigates how decoherence and bonding affect DNA conductance by fitting a statistical model to experimental data, revealing insights into DNA's conduction mechanisms.

Contribution

It introduces a phenomenological model combined with ab initio parameters to accurately describe DNA conductance and matches experimental results.

Findings

Good agreement with experimental length and sequence dependence

Supports the relevance of the tight-binding ladder model for DNA conduction

Highlights the importance of decoherence and bonding effects

Abstract

The influence of decoherence and bonding on the linear conductance of single double-stranded DNA molecules is examined by fitting a phenomenological statistical model developed recently (EPJB {\bf 68}, 237 (2009)) to experimental results. The DNA molecule itself is described by a tight binding ladder model with parameters obtained from published ab initio calculations (J.Am.Chem.Soc. {\bf 127}, 14894 (2005)). The good agreement with the experiments on sequence and length dependence gives a hint on the nature of conduction in DNA and at the same time provides a crucial test of the model.