The anisotropy of charge transport in pulse-irradiated polymers: from polyethylene to polydeoxyribonucleic acid

The results presented illustrate the applicability of the PR-TRMC technique fbr the study of the anisotropy of charge transport in aligned polymeric s amples. The anisotropies found show that charge migration along the backbon e direction of oriented samples of polyethylene, polysilylenes, and polydia cetylenes is favoured by approximately an order of magnitude or more. In co ntrast no anisotropy is found for the radiation-induced conductivity in ori ented-fibre samples of DNA which leads to the conclusion that charge transp ort along the base pair stack in this material is not the favoured conducti ve pathway. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.