  Dielectrophoretic trapping of six different DNA fragments, sizes varying from
the 27 to 8416 bp, has been studied using confocal microscopy. The effect of
the DNA length and the size of the constriction between nanoscale fingertip
electrodes on the trapping efficiency have been investigated. Using finite
element method simulations in conjunction with the analysis of the experimental
data, the polarizabilities of the different size DNA fragments have been
calculated for different frequencies. Also the immobilization of trapped
hexanethiol- and DTPA-modified 140 nm long DNA to the end of gold
nanoelectrodes was experimentally quantified and the observations were
supported by density functional theory calculations.
