Absence of extended states in a ladder model of DNA

Abstract

We consider a ladder model of DNA for describing carrier transport in a fully coherent regime through finite segments. A single orbital is associated to each base, and both interstrand and intrastrand overlaps are considered within the nearest-neighbor approximation. Conduction through the sugar-phosphate backbone is neglected. We study analytically and numerically the spatial extend of the corresponding states by means of the Landauer and Lyapunov exponents. We conclude that intrinsic-DNA correlations, arising from the natural base pairing, does not suffice to observe extended states, in contrast to previous claims.