DNA bases detection via MoS₂ field effect transistor with a nanopore: first-principles modeling

Recently, molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) has captured vast interest in the biomolecular detection field because of its wide surface area and notable optoelectronic characteristics. In this work, a monolayer MoS₂ sheet connected to a pair of gold electrodes, with a nanopore at the center of the MoS₂ sheet, is designed for the purpose of selective, quick, and sensitive DNA base identification. The MoS₂ sheet performance is enhanced by placing a gate terminal underneath the MoS₂ channel. MoS₂ material has various promising applications and can be utilized in multi terminal sensors. The electronic transport characteristics of the MoS₂ sheet and the MoS₂ field effect transistor after placing each of the DNA nucleobases inside the pore are studied. Both MoS₂ sheet and MoS₂ FET sensors exhibit distinct electronic characteristics for the different DNA nucleobases (Thymine, Adenine, Cytosine, and Guanine). Density functional theory integrated with Non-equilibrium Green’s function (DFT + NEGF) are used to inspect the detection mechanism.