DNA Immobilization on GaP(100) Investigated by Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy

• Published in: Journal of physical chemistry. C 2010-09, Vol.114 (36), p.15486-15490
• Main Authors: Richards, David N, Zemlyanov, Dmitry Y, Asrar, Rafay M, Chokshi, Yena Y, Cook, Emily M, Hinton, Thomas J, Lu, Xinran, Nguyen, Viet Q, Patel, Neil K, Usher, Jonathan R, Vaidyanathan, Sriram, Yeung, David A, Ivanisevic, Albena
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: C: Surfaces, Interfaces, Catalysis
• ISSN: 1932-7447; 1932-7455
• DOI: 10.1021/jp105927t

Understanding changes in the properties of semiconductor materials after immobilization of biomolecules on the surface is essential for the fabrication of well-tuned and programmable devices. The work examines changes in the properties of gallium phosphide (GaP) after modification with an organic linker, a single stranded DNA, and its complementary strand. We investigated changes in surface potential with Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM). Analysis revealed that a more ordered adlayer of ssDNA was present when a lower concentration of linker molecule was used. KPFM data combined with coverage data obtained from X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) further confirmed this result. Successful hybridization with the complementary strand was confirmed by both KPFM and Raman spectroscopy. The results indicate that one can control the amount of DNA on the surface by changing the initial concentration of the organic linker, and thus modulate the surface potential of the semiconductor material.