THz oscillating currents enhanced by long-range correlations in DNA

Recently synthetic homopolymer DNA molecules have been theoretically demonstrated to support oscillating polarons when they are subjected to an external electric field ( Bloch oscillations). Environment effects might introduce randomness in the molecular levels that, in general, destroy the coherence necessary to support this periodic dynamics. In this sense the existence of long-ranged correlations in DNA as well as its influence on its properties has been widely discussed. We demonstrate that the polaron performs Bloch oscillations even in disordered DNA molecules provided long-range correlations arise in the sequence of molecular levels. We predict the occurrence of THz alternating currents across the DNA molecules, opening the possibility of new applications in molecular electronics. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.