Dissipative Effects in the Electronic Transport through DNA Molecular Wires

Abstract

We investigate the influence of a dissipative environment which effectively comprises the effects of counterions and hydration shells, on the transport properties of short \DNA wires. Their electronic structure is captured by a tight-binding model which is embedded in a bath consisting of a collection of harmonic oscillators. Without coupling to the bath a temperature independent gap opens in the electronic spectrum. Upon allowing for electron-bath interaction the gap becomes temperature dependent. It increases with temperature in the weak-coupling limit to the bath degrees of freedom. In the strong-coupling regime a bath-induced {\it pseudo-gap} is formed. As a result, a crossover from tunneling to activated behavior in the low-voltage region of the $I$-$V$ characteristics is observed with increasing temperature. The temperature dependence of the transmission near the Fermi energy, $t(E_{\mathrm{F}})$, manifests an Arrhenius-like behavior in agreement with recent transport experiments. Moreover, $t(E_{\mathrm{F}})$ shows a weak exponential dependence on the wire length, typical of strong incoherent transport. Disorder effects smear the electronic bands, but do not appreciably affect the pseudo-gap formation.

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• Unified model for conductance through DNA with the Landauer-Buttiker formalism
• Crucial role of decoherence for electronic transport in molecular wires: Polyaniline as a case study
• Inelastic effects in molecular transport junctions: The probe technique at high bias
• Influence of vibrational modes on the electronic properties of DNA
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• Dynamics of a two-level system under the simultaneous influence of a spin bath and a boson bath
• Charge Transport Through DNA with Energy-Dependent Decoherence
• Inelastic electron transport in polymer nanofibers
• Environment effects on the electric conductivity of the DNA
• On the dissipative effects in the electron transport through conducting polymer nanofibers
• Length and temperature dependent crossover of charge transport across molecular junctions
• Evidence of phonon-assisted tunnelling in electrical conduction through DNA molecules