The 2016 study ‘Dipole effects on the formation of molecular junctions’ (S. Tanimoto, M. Tsutsui, K. Yokota and M. Taniguchi, Nanoscale Horiz., 2016, 1, 399–406, demonstrated that strong electric fields can align molecular dipoles, stabilizing conformations and improving the reproducibility of tunnelling current measurements. The insight has since driven advances in low-noise electrode design, molecular orientation control, and active trapping strategies, enabling robust single-molecule detection in solution. This article highlights how electrostatic control has shaped the evolution of tunnelling-based biosensing and brought label-free, single-molecule sequencing closer to reality.
