Controlling the Solid-state Nanopore Size Using Electric Fields

At present, nanopores have received widespread attention because of their single-molecule scale detection accuracy. Solid-state nanopores have the advantages of stability, tolerance, easy integration and controllability. The size and shape of the nanopore will directly affect the detection accuracy of the solid-state nanopore sensor. Therefore, the controllable preparation of the solid-state nanopore plays a crucial role. This paper reports a simple method for changing pore diameter via applying a voltage bias across the pore. The amplitude of voltage bias determines shrinkage or enlargement of the nanopore. The nanopores we fabricated have successfully been used to detect DNA and protein molecules and show a good noise level.