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Science 12 January 2001:
Vol. 291. no. 5502, pp. 280 - 282
DOI: 10.1126/science.291.5502.280
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Reports

Proximity-Induced Superconductivity in DNA

A. Yu. Kasumov,12* M. Kociak,1 S. Guéron,1 B. Reulet,1 V. T. Volkov,2 D. V. Klinov,3 H. Bouchiat1

Conductivity measurements on double-stranded DNA molecules deposited by a combing process across a submicron slit between rhenium/carbon metallic contacts reveal conduction to be ohmic between room temperature and 1 kelvin. The resistance per molecule is less than 100 kilohm and varies weakly with temperature. Below the superconducting transition temperature (1 kelvin) of the contacts, proximity-induced superconductivity is observed. These results imply that DNA molecules can be conducting down to millikelvin temperature and that phase coherence is maintained over several hundred nanometers.

1 Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, Associé au CNRS, Bât 510, Université Paris-Sud, 91405, Orsay, France.
2 Institute of Microelectronics Technology and High Purity Materials, Russian Academy of Sciences, Chernogolovka 142432 Moscow Region, Russia.
3 Shemyakin-Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, Miklukho-Maklaya 16/10, Moscow 117871, Russia.
*   Present address: Starlab, La tour de Freins, 555 rue Engeland 1180 Uclle, Brussels, Belgium.

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