Objective A focused on leveraging DNA origami for precise nanoscale positioning in three dimensions, enabling new approaches to light energy harvesting. A key advancement was integrating three-dimensional DNA origami designs onto nanopatterned substrates. A subsequent silicification process produced hybrid DNA–silica structures with superior mechanical and chemical stability, reaching the sub-10-nm regime and allowing precise integration of inorganic and organic components (published in: Martynenko et al., "Site-directed placement of three-dimensional DNA origami" Nature Nanotechnology 2023).Our nanotexturing method enables the development of complex three-dimensional surfaces and integrated devices, opening possibilities for advanced energy-harvesting designs. Additionally, we combined these results with self-assembling surface patterning techniques using colloidal nanoparticles, effectively replacing time-intensive top-down lithography.
In parallel, we developed a fabrication technique for conformally coating DNA origami frameworks and chip designs with functional metal oxides via atomic layer deposition (ALD). This method preserves the DNA framework’s integrity while enabling tunable nanometer-thin layers of functional materials like ZnO, TiO2, and IrO2. Notably, our approach facilitated electrocatalytic water splitting using IrO2-coated DNA origami frameworks, exhibiting drastically improved performance over planar films (Ermatov et al., "Fabrication of functional 3D nanoarchitectures via atomic layer deposition on DNA origami crystals", JACS 2025). These results highlight DNA origami’s potential as a robust platform for engineering interpenetrating, 3D nanomaterials with precise topologies and material compositions for energy conversion.
In Objective B, our key breakthrough was the demonstration of DNA-based photonic crystals (Posnjak et al., "Diamond-lattice photonic crystals assembled from DNA origami", Science 2024). We assembled DNA origami-based building blocks into a rod-connected 3D lattice. Using DNA origami tetrapods that acted as "quasi-carbon atoms", we designed a cubic diamond lattice with a periodicity of 170nm, which, after ALD with a high-refractive-index material such as TiO2, enabled tunable photonic bandgaps in the near-UV. Additionally, we used DNA origami crystals as scaffolds for plasmonic particles, creating lattices exhibiting unique light-matter interactions. Chiral origami-based meta-molecules were assembled into chiral plasmonic crystals carrying nanoparticles, yielding strong circular dichroism (Sikeler et al., "Chiral Plasmonic Crystals Self-Assembled by DNA Origami", J. Phys. Chem. C 2025).
Another success was the development of a DNA origami-based reconfigurable optical switch. This system leveraged single-to-double-stranded DNA transitions to generate entropic forces, leading to large-scale plasmonic particle motion and enabling DNA-controlled optical responses (Gür et al., "Double‐to Single‐Strand Transition Induces Forces and Motion in DNA Origami Nanostructures", Advanced Materials 2021). Our DNA nanostructures can thus serve as dynamic, reconfigurable photonic components, advancing the integration of nanoscale motion into optical devices.
A significant achievement within Objective C was the fabrication of plasmonic metasurfaces through DNA origami self-assembly and electron beam lithography, allowing deterministic positioning of gold nanospheres on SiO2 surfaces to form precisely structured metasurfaces with tunable optical responses (Sikeler et al., "DNA Origami‐Directed Self‐Assembly of Gold Nanospheres for Plasmonic Metasurfaces", Adv. Funct. Mat., 2024).
Fulfilling the core promise of this objective, we then fabricated a zigzag chain of gold nanospheres to replicate the plasmonic Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model (Christoph Sikeler, PhD thesis, LMU). This system enabled direct visualization of topologically protected edge states that were tunable by rotating a linear polarization filter, with experimental observations aligning closely with theoretical predictions.
In conclusion, our team demonstrated groundbreaking achievements in light manipulation and energy conversion through DNA origami. By harnessing the precision of DNA self-assembly, we developed innovative fabrication methods, enhanced photonic crystal architectures, and introduced topologically protected states with direct implications for all-optical circuits. These results lay the foundation for future advances in nanophotonics, energy-efficient optical materials, and quantum science.
