Figure 4.

DNA dynamics in 2D‐nanoslit. a) Video stills of a DNA loop translocating through the 2D nanoslit (top view). Upon capture into the slit, folds and loops along the DNA polymer chain (shown in the red dotted rectangle) are preserved throughout the entire translocation event. b) Distance versus time curves for every 100 bp segments along the same DNA molecule. The origin of the Y axis is defined to be at the entrance of the slit. Three segments are highlighted to show the general trend: green—leading segment, i.e., first segment of DNA to enter the nanoslit; cyan—middle segment; and red—trailing segment, the last one to enter the slit. Segments that were close together did not vary much in their displacement, which preserved local DNA conformations, such as loop and folds, throughout the translocation. c) Calculated velocity of DNA during the translocation. The maximum velocity increases for the trailing segments of the DNA. d) Snapshots illustrating the diversity of DNA polymer conformations in the simulations and the corresponding ionic current traces. The video stills correspond to the time point marked by the arrow in the current trace (full videos in the Supporting Information). Similar current traces were experimentally observed in the translocation measurements, confirming that complex DNA conformations can translocate through the 2D nanoslit without becoming unraveled.