Conductive Biomolecules and their THz Vibrational Interactions: Key Aspects of Bioelectronics Dinakar Ramadurai c , Takayuki Yamanaka a , Yang Li a , Viswanath Sankar a , Mitra Dutta a,b , and Michael A. Stroscio a,b,c a Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, U. of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), 851 S. Morgan Street, Chicago, Illinois 60607 b Physics Department, U. of Illinois at Chicago, 851 S. Morgan Street, Chicago, Illinois 60607 c Bioengineering Department, U. of Illinois at Chicago, 851 S. Morgan Street, Chicago, IL 60607 Tijana Rajh d and Zoran Saponjic d d Chemistry Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439 Song Xu e e Molecular Imaging, Inc., 24605 Helena Drive, Brownstown, MI 48183 ABSTRACT This paper focuses on understanding the THz-phonon mediated transport of polarons in biomolecules, with particular attention on polaron transport in DNA. In order to exploit biology-based approaches to realizing new electronic systems, it is necessary to understand the electrical transport properties and THz-phonon interactions of biomolecules that portend applications both as electrically conductive wires and as structures that facilitate the chemically-directed assembly of massively integrated ensembles of nanoscale semiconducting elements into terascale integrated networks. Special attention is given to charge transport in biomolecules using indirect-bandgap colloidal nanocrystals linked with biomolecules. Key Words: Quantum dots, TiO 2 , nanowires, biomolecules, colloidal nanoparticles, polaron transport in DNA, chemically-directed assembly Invited Paper Terahertz for Military and Security Applications IV, edited by Dwight L. Woolard, R. Jennifer Hwu, Mark J. Rosker, and James O. Jensen, Proc. of SPIE Vol. 6212, 621201, (2006) · 0277-786X/06/$15 · doi: 10.1117/12.661030 Proc. of SPIE Vol. 6212 621201-1