Solid-State Nanopores: Fabrication, Application, and Analysis

Abstract

The work presented in this thesis is divided loosely into three main areas of interest: development of a novel method of solid-state nanopore fabrication; applications of this method to some of the open problems in the field; and analysis of nanopore data. The first of these occupies the majority of the research presented in this thesis, covering research dedicated to the development and characterization of a novel method of solid-state nanopore fabrication which achieves nanometer scale control over matter using simple and low cost circuitry. Termed controlled breakdown (CBD), this technique is in the process of revolutionizing the field of nanopore research, and in the few short years I have been part of its development it has seen adoption in nanopore labs across the globe, both academic and industrial. Due to the simple nature of CBD, this technique also enables novel applications of nanopores in device architectures that were inaccessible to the expensive and inflexible methods used previously. The second part of this thesis takes advantage of the unique opportunities presented by CBD to develop a device architecture comprising two nanopores in series. This nanodevice tackles one of the main problems standing between nanopores and the promise of cheap genomic analysis: control of the motion and conformation of the polymer both prior to and during translocation through the pore. Finally, because the field of nanopore research is still relatively young, very few tools are available which provide high-quality analysis of nanopore data. The last part of this thesis is dedicated to a thorough discussion of the complexities involved in analysing nanopore signals, as well as the development of several tools which directly address this knowledge gap.