Figure 1.

(A) Schematic illustration of the nanofluidic chip design (left). The channel system comprises pairs of micro‐channels, spanned by an array of straight nanochannels. The cartoon shows DNA polymers confined inside a nanochannel. DNA will be partially stretched along the nanochannel, with an extension R_∥, shorter than its contour length L. (B) Montage of fluorescence images of λ‐DNA with aS. From up to bottom: 0, 1, 5, 15 and 40 μm aS. The YOYO:bp ratio is 1:50. (C) Extension distribution of λ‐DNA molecules in 150×100 nm² nanochannels at different concentrations of aS.