Investigations of electrical properties of structures Al-DNA-ITO-Al exposed to alpha particles

• Freshly prepared DNA solution was deposited as thin films by using the self-assembly method.
• Series resistances, barrier heights and ideality factors were determined from I–V measurements.
• A novel DNA hypersensitivity phenomenon was observed at low alpha radiation.
• DNA based diodes can be employed as sensitive alpha particle sensors.

The detection of alpha particles and other radiation sources has been an important field of research since the inception of radioactive materials in medical technology approximately a century ago. While different types of radiation sensors exist, in recent history, in light of a few catastrophic nuclear meltdowns, the development of sensors with rapid and effective detection properties have become crucial. To probe the feasibility of incorporating such features into the detector architecture, a simple sensor based on mushroom Deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA (Aluminium (Al)/DNA/Indium Tin Oxide (ITO)) was built, and the possibility of employing DNA electronics for the potential detection of alpha particles was investigated. Current–voltage (I–V) profiles were obtained following radiation using alpha particles at different dosages and exposure periods at room temperature. Properties such as series resistance, RS and other properties (barrier height, ideality factor and hypersensitivity) were calculated and analyzed using Conventional, Cheung and Cheung and Norde methods. RS values of the non-radiated samples calculated using the first method was about 8.6 MΩ. Using Conventional and Norde methods, samples irradiated for 4 min demonstrated the highest RS values of 5.79 and 1.81 MΩ, respectively. The results obtained were used to demonstrate the possibility of applying the sensitivity of DNA sensors to the measurement of alpha radiation.