Pathways of polaron and bipolaron transport in DNA double strands

We investigate the pathways of polaron and bipolaron transports in DNA double strands with an extended Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model involving the effects of solvent polarization. We find that the long-range transport of polaron/bipolaron under high electric field at low temperature is the field-facilitated sequential tunneling through spatial-disordered potential barriers via multiple intrastrand and interstrand pathways. Although the interstrand pathways may be very active and effective in some DNA sequences, the intrastrand ones always dominate the charge transfer when the excess charge moves close to the final acceptor. (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics.