Driven DNA translocation through thin and long nanopores

We utilize Brownian dynamics simulation to study polymer translocation through a nanopore driven by an electric field using a coarse-grained bead-spring model for the translocating DNA. We study mean translocation time $\langle \tau \rangle$ as a function of the chain length N, the width $w$ of the pore, and external bias F. Unlike many previous studies, we critically examine the scaling of $\langle \tau \rangle$ as a function of the ratio $N/w$ and F. For a thin pore, our preliminary results indicate that the mean translocation time $\langle \tau \rangle \sim N^{2\nu}$, where $\nu$ is the Flory exponent, although the slope shows a weak but non-negligible dependence on the external bias F for the chain lengths considered so far. Our simulation results are consistent with experiments done in solid-state nanopore$^{*,+}$.\\ $^{*}$Work done in collaboration with Heath Morrison, Prof. Kurt Binder and Prof. Andrey Milchev.\\ $^{+}$ A.~J. Storm, C. Storm, J. Chen, H. Zandbergen, J-F Joanny, C. Dekker, Nano Letters, {\bf 5}, 1193 (2005).