Ultrahigh Spatial Resolution Cross-Disjoint Mortise-Confined Solid-State Nanopores with an Ultrathin Middle Layer

• Published in: Journal of physical chemistry. C Vol. 126; no. 18; pp. 8158 - 8164
• Main Authors: Zhang, Xiaoling, Liu, Yexiang, Xu, Mengli, Zhang, Ziyin, Xie, Wanyi, He, Shixuan, Hu, Ning, Wang, Deqiang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Chemical Society 12-05-2022
• Subjects: C: Physical Properties of Materials and Interfaces
• ISSN: 1932-7447; 1932-7455
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.2c01459

Nanopore single-molecule technology, especially DNA/RNA sequencing based on nanopores, requires a high spatial resolution. In this paper, we theoretically studied the spatial resolution of the cross-disjoint mortise-confined solid-state nanopore (CDM-nanopore) structure that is formed by two perpendicular and disjoint nanochannels and a middle nanopore. When the thickness of the middle layer (nanopore) is 0 nm (i.e., the zero-depth interfacial nanopore), 0.6 nm, and 1 nm, the geometric resolution (δz) is 0.24, 0.32, and 0.39 nm, respectively. The ultrahigh spatial resolution of the CDM nanopore with an ultrathin middle layer is comparable with that of the conventional ultrashort nanopore (e.g., two-dimensional material nanopore). We also demonstrate that for cylindrical segments with a diameter difference of 0.2 nm, the current difference (δI) will reach the maximum when the middle layer is about half of the length of one segment. In addition to the high resolution of CDM nanopores with an ultrathin middle layer, its outstanding mechanical stability and low noise characteristics provide the possibility of extending the application of the CDM nanopore to DNA/RNA sequencing.