Double Barrel Nanopores as a New Tool for Controlling Single-Molecule Transport

Abstract

The ability to control the motion of single biomolecules is key to improving a wide range of biophysical and diagnostic applications. Solid-state nanopores are a promising tool capable of solving this task. However, molecular control and the possibility of slow readouts of long polymer molecules are still limited due to fast analyte transport and low signal-to-noise ratios. Here, we report on a novel approach of actively controlling analyte transport by using a double-nanopore architecture where two nanopores are separated by only a ∼ 20 nm gap. The nanopores can be addressed individually, allowing for two unique modes of operation: (i) pore-to-pore transfer, which can be controlled at near 100% efficiency, and (ii) DNA molecules bridging between the two nanopores, which enables detection with an enhanced temporal resolution (e.g., an increase of more than 2 orders of magnitude in the dwell time) without compromising the signal quality. The simplicity of fabrication and operation of the double-barrel architecture opens a wide range of applications for high-resolution readout of biological molecules.