Large-Scale Formation of DNA Origami Lattices on Silicon

Abstract

In recent years, hierarchical nanostructures have found applications in fields like diagnostics, medicine, nano-optics, and nanoelectronics, especially in challenging applications like the creation of metasurfaces with unique optical properties. One of the promising materials to fabricate such nanostructures has been DNA due to its robust self-assembly properties and plethora of different functionalization schemes. Here, we demonstrate the assembly of a two-dimensional fishnet-type lattice on a silicon substrate using cross-shaped DNA origami as the building block, i.e., tile. The effects of different environmental and structural factors are investigated under liquid atomic force microscopy (AFM) to optimize the lattice assembly. Furthermore, the arm-to-arm binding affinity of the tiles is analyzed, revealing preferential orientations. From the liquid AFM results, we develop a methodology to produce closely-spaced DNA origami lattices on silicon substrate, which allows further nanofabrication process steps, such as metallization. This formed polycrystalline lattice has high surface coverage and is extendable to the wafer scale with an average domain size of about a micrometer. Further studies are needed to increase the domain size toward a single-crystalline large-scale lattice.