Electrophoresis in capillary cells with detection gap

A novel design of the detection zone in multicapillary arrays used for electrophoretic separation is presented. The use of a detection gap (DG), in which the reflective surfaces separating the channels of the array are eliminated, is proposed to improve the illumination and detection of the separated DNA fragments. The electric field compression in the DG is achieved by optimization of the gap geometry. The results of the computer simulation and experiment demonstrate no substantial band-broadening in the DG. We believe that the proposed method will be useful for application in the microfabricated devices.