Related papers: Single Molecule FRET Reveals Pore Size and Opening…
We present a new study of the nonlinear transport of a two-dimensional electron crystal on the surface of liquid helium confined in a 10 micrometer-wide channel in which the effective length of the crystal can be varied from 10 to 215…
Configurations of a single semiflexible polymer is studied when it is pushed into a nanochannel in the case where the polymer persistence length $l_p$ is much longer than the channel diameter $D$, i.e. $l_p/D \gg 1$. Using numerical…
Transistors, regardless of their size, rely on electrical gates to control the conductance between source and drain contacts. In atomic-scale transistors, this conductance is exquisitely sensitive to single electrons hopping via individual…
Molecular Dynamics simulations of water molecules in nanometre sized cylindrical channels connecting two reservoirs show that the permeation of water is very sensitive to the channel radius and to electric polarization of the embedding…
It is crucial to measure position and conformational changes of a membrane-interacting protein relative to the membrane surface. This is however challenging because the thickness of a membrane is usually only about 4 nm. We developed a…
For ion channel gating, the appearance of two distinct conformational states and the discrete transitions between them is essential, and therefore of crucial importance to all living organisms. We show that the physical interplay between…
We present an original method to estimate the conductivity of a single molecule anchored to nanometric-sized metallic electrodes, using a Mechanically Controlled Break Junction (MCBJ) operated at room temperature in liquid. We record the…
Two-dimensional crystals with angstrom-scale pores are widely considered as candidates for a next generation of molecular separation technologies aiming to provide extreme, exponentially large selectivity combined with high flow rates. No…
The separation of liquid mixture components is relevant to many applications -- ranging from water purification to biofuel production -- and is a growing concern related to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as ``Clean water…
This mini review focuses on conductance measurements through molecular junctions containing few tens of molecules, which are fabricated along two approaches: (i) conducting atomic force microscope contacting a self-assembled monolayers on…
We report on single crystal high mobility organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) prepared on prefabricated substrates using a "flip-crystal" approach. This method minimizes crystal handling and avoids direct processing of the crystal that…
To what extent must a hydrophobic gate expand for the channel to count as open? We address this question using the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) as the exemplar. The nAChR is an integral membrane protein which forms a cation…
We study water adsorption-induced deformation of a monolithic, mesoporous silicon membrane traversed by independent channels of $\sim$8 nm diameter. We focus on the elastic constant associated with the Laplace pressure-induced deformation…
Many eukaryotic cells are able to perform directional mechanosensing by directly measuring minute spatial differences in the mechanical stress on their membranes. Here, we explore the limits of a single mechanosensitive channel activation…
Single-molecule detection at a nanometric interface in a femtomolar solution, can take weeks as the encounter rate between the diffusing molecule to be detected and the transducing nano-device is negligibly small. On the other hand, several…
The conformations of semiflexible (bio)polymers are studied in flow through geometrically structured microchannels. Using mesoscale hydrodynamics simulations, we show that the polymer undergoes a rod-to-helix transition as it moves from the…
Transport of molecules across membrane channels is investigated theoretically using exactly solvable discrete stochastic site-binding models. It is shown that the interaction potential between molecules and the channel has a strong effect…
Fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) from individual, dye-labeled RNA molecules confined in freely-diffusing attoliter-volume aqueous droplets is carefully compared to FRET from unconfined RNA in solution. The use of…
Extending mode-coupling theory, we elaborate a microscopic theory for the glass transition of liquids confined between two parallel flat hard walls. The theory contains the standard MCT equations in bulk and in two dimensions as limiting…
We have fabricated a variety of novel molecular tunnel junctions based on self-assembled-monolayers (SAM) of two-component solid-state mixtures of molecular wires (1,4 methane benzene-dithiol; Me-BDT with two thiol anchoring groups), and…