Capillary Ionic Transistor and Precise Transport Control for Nano Manipulation

Capillary Ionic Transistor (CIT) is introduced as a nanodevice which provides control of ionic transport through nanochannel by gate voltage. CIT is Ionic transistor which employs pulled capillary as nanochannel with tip diameter smaller than 100 nm. We observed that gate voltage applied to gate electrode, deposited on the outer wall of capillary, affect a conductance of nanochannel, due to change of surface charge at the solution/capillary interface. Negative gate voltage corresponds to lower conductivity and positive gate increase conductance of the channel. This effect strongly depends on the size of the channel. In general, at least one dimension of the channel has to be small enough for electrical double layer to overlap. As a demonstration of the gate control ability, we performed Si nanoparticle delivery via CIT and recorded the deliverance through resistive pulse method. Size and velocity measurement are also conducted, to showcase the versatility of CIT device.