title: Observation of ionic Coulomb blockade in nanopores.
abstract: Emergent behaviour from electron-transport properties is routinely observed in systems with dimensions approaching the nanoscale. However, analogous mesoscopic behaviour resulting from ionic transport has so far not been observed, most probably because of bottlenecks in the controlled fabrication of subnanometre nanopores for use in nanofluidics. Here, we report measurements of ionic transport through a single subnanometre pore junction, and the observation of ionic Coulomb blockade: the ionic counterpart of the electronic Coulomb blockade observed for quantum dots. Our findings demonstrate that nanoscopic, atomically thin pores allow for the exploration of phenomena in ionic transport, and suggest that nanopores may also further our understanding of transport through biological ion channels.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Nanoscale Biology, Institute of Bioengineering, School of Engineering, EPFL, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Jiandong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Nanoscale Biology, Institute of Bioengineering, School of Engineering, EPFL, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Ke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Nanoscale Biology, Institute of Bioengineering, School of Engineering, EPFL, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Graf
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Nanoscale Electronics and Structures, Institute of Electrical Engineering, School of Engineering, EPFL, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Dumitru
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-7388-5597
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dumcenco
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Nanoscale Electronics and Structures, Institute of Electrical Engineering, School of Engineering, EPFL, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Andras
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kis
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA.
authors.forename: Massimiliano
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-9416-189X
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Di Ventra
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Nanoscale Biology, Institute of Bioengineering, School of Engineering, EPFL, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Aleksandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Radenovic
mesh_terms: D004220:Disulfides / Q000737:chemistry*; D017136:Ion Transport; D008982:Molybdenum / Q000737:chemistry*; D058608:Nanopores
chemical_list: D004220:Disulfides; D008982:Molybdenum; C082964:molybdenum disulfide