Figure 1.

a) Schematic drawing of gold islands connected by DNA origami tubes on the substrate surface. Thiolated DNA strands (shown in red) are extended from each end of DNA origami tube and the thiol-gold bonds align the tubes along the gold islands. The distance between the thiolated groups is designed so the tube will only connect gold islands that match its length. b) The fabrication of gold islands and binding of DNA origami tubes. An HMDS and PMMA resist layer were spin coated on a clean Si or SiO₂ substrate. E-Beam exposure was performed with a designed pattern. After O₂ plasma treatment was used to eliminate the exposed HMDS, 2 nm Cr and 7 nm Au were deposited through evaporation. After lift-off with acetone, patterns of gold surface islands with the background covered by HMDS, were fabricated on the substrate. Gold patterned substrate was cut into ~ 5 × 20 mm sections and incubated with freshly purified and reduced DNA origami tube solution to facilitate the specific attachment of the DNA tubes to the gold islands.