10c Ultra-Fast Molecule Sorting and Delivery by Atomic Force Microscopy

Kerem Unal, Jane Frommer, and H. Kumar Wickramasinghe. Science and Technology, IBM Research Division, Almaden Research Center, 650 Harry Road, San Jose, CA 95120

An AFM is tailored to perform ultrafast electrophoretic differentiation of molecules on populations of <0.1 zeptomoles (10-22 moles) on the surface of a probe tip. The driving force for differentiation is a large electric field applied over the length of an AFM tip that results in enhanced differential mobilities stemming from the confinement of the water layer on the tip surface. In a demonstration on DNA oligonucleotides, a 5-mer and a 16-mer exhibit migration times of 15 and 5 ms, respectively, ~5 orders of magnitude faster than in conventional capillary electrophoresis.