Abstract

Molecular self-assembly approaches that offer atomic precision, ultimate design freedom, and scalability in nanofabrication, are projected to have a major impact on the engineering of future artificial light-managing surfaces. Structural DNA nanotechnology, particularly DNA origami self-assembly, allows the high-yield synthesis of a wide variety of hybrid organic-inorganic optical nanostructures at a resolution unachievable by top-down fabrication. The integration of these nanostructures into real devices, yet, remains a challenge. More than a decade ago, DNA origami placement was established, a technique based on the site- and shape-selective deposition of DNA origami objects onto lithographically patterned substrates, creating large-scale arrays of precisely placed DNA structures [1, 2]. However, the DNA origami placement methods developed so far were limited to planar DNA origami and could only fabricate two-dimensional arrays and patterns. We extend DNA origami placement to the third dimension by mounting three-dimensional DNA origami onto nanopatterned substrates, followed by silicification to provide hybrid DNA-silica structures with a height of ~ 50 nm exhibiting feature sizes in the sub-10-nm regime [3]. In this seminar, I will describe our versatile and scalable method of nanofabrication that relies on DNA self-assembly at ambient temperatures and offers the potential to three-dimensionally position any inorganic and organic components compatible with DNA origami nanoarchitecture. This near-nanometer-precise spatial positioning of nanoscale building blocks is crucial for applications of this method, such as scalable self-assembled optical metamaterials and defect engineering in two-dimensional semiconductors.

[1] R. Kershner, Nat Nanotechnol 4, 557–561 (2009).

[2] A. Gopinath, et al., Nature 535, 401–405 (2016).

[3] I. V. Martynenko, et al., Nat. Nanotechnol. 18, 1456–1462 (2023)

Bio:

Dr. Irina Martynenko completed her PhD in physics and mathematics in 2015 at ITMO University in St. Petersburg, Russia. Following her PhD, she held research positions at the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (2018-2019) in Berlin and at Harvard University (2019-2020). After her postdoctoral research in the group of Prof. Dr. Tim Liedl at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany, she joined Skoltech in August 2024. Here, she is setting up the DNA origami Laboratory. Her research is focused on developing an advanced experimental technique for placing DNA origami on lithographically-patterned surfaces, enabling the precise positioning of molecular and nanoparticulate components with molecular-level resolution.