scholarly journals Surface Plasmon Resonance-Based Sensing Utilizing Spatial Phase Modulation in an Imaging Interferometer

Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 1616
Author(s):  
Roman Kaňok ◽  
Dalibor Ciprian ◽  
Petr Hlubina

Spatial phase modulation in an imaging interferometer is utilized in surface plasmon resonance (SPR) based sensing of liquid analytes. In the interferometer, a collimated light beam from a laser diode irradiating at 637.1 nm is passing through a polarizer and is reflected from a plasmonic structure of SF10/Cr/Au attached to a prism in the Kretschmann configuration. The beam passes through a combination of a Wollaston prism, a polarizer and a lens, and forms an interference pattern on a CCD sensor of a color camera. Interference patterns obtained for different liquid analytes are acquired and transferred to the computer for data processing. The sensing concept is based on the detection of a refractive index change, which is transformed via the SPR phenomenon into an interference fringe phase shift. By calculating the phase shift for the plasmonic structure of SF10/Cr/Au of known parameters we demonstrate that this technique can detect different weight concentrations of ethanol diluted in water, or equivalently, different changes in the refractive index. The sensitivity to the refractive index and the detection limit obtained are −278 rad/refractive-index-unit (RIU) and 3.6 × 10 − 6 RIU, respectively. The technique is demonstrated in experiments with the same liquid analytes as in the theory. Applying an original approach in retrieving the fringe phase shift, we revealed good agreement between experiment and theory, and the measured sensitivity to the refractive index and the detection limit reached −226 rad/RIU and 4.4 × 10 − 6 RIU, respectively. These results suggest that the SPR interferometer with the detection of a fringe phase shift is particularly useful in applications that require measuring refractive index changes with high sensitivity.

Photonics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 41
Author(s):  
Najat Andam ◽  
Siham Refki ◽  
Hidekazu Ishitobi ◽  
Yasushi Inouye ◽  
Zouheir Sekkat

The determination of optical constants (i.e., real and imaginary parts of the complex refractive index (nc) and thickness (d)) of ultrathin films is often required in photonics. It may be done by using, for example, surface plasmon resonance (SPR) spectroscopy combined with either profilometry or atomic force microscopy (AFM). SPR yields the optical thickness (i.e., the product of nc and d) of the film, while profilometry and AFM yield its thickness, thereby allowing for the separate determination of nc and d. In this paper, we use SPR and profilometry to determine the complex refractive index of very thin (i.e., 58 nm) films of dye-doped polymers at different dye/polymer concentrations (a feature which constitutes the originality of this work), and we compare the SPR results with those obtained by using spectroscopic ellipsometry measurements performed on the same samples. To determine the optical properties of our film samples by ellipsometry, we used, for the theoretical fits to experimental data, Bruggeman’s effective medium model for the dye/polymer, assumed as a composite material, and the Lorentz model for dye absorption. We found an excellent agreement between the results obtained by SPR and ellipsometry, confirming that SPR is appropriate for measuring the optical properties of very thin coatings at a single light frequency, given that it is simpler in operation and data analysis than spectroscopic ellipsometry.


Nanomaterials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 1728
Author(s):  
Joshua Fernandes ◽  
Sangmo Kang

The near-field enhancement and localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) on the core-shell noble metal nanostructure surfaces are widely studied for various biomedical applications. However, the study of the optical properties of new plasmonic non-spherical nanostructures is less explored. This numerical study quantifies the optical properties of spherical and non-spherical (prolate and oblate) dimer nanostructures by introducing finite element modelling in COMSOL Multiphysics. The surface plasmon resonance peaks of gold nanostructures should be understood and controlled for use in biological applications such as photothermal therapy and drug delivery. In this study, we find that non-spherical prolate and oblate gold dimers give excellent tunability in a wide range of biological windows. The electromagnetic field enhancement and surface plasmon resonance peak can be tuned by varying the aspect ratio of non-spherical nanostructures, the refractive index of the surrounding medium, shell thickness, and the distance of separation between nanostructures. The absorption spectra exhibit considerably greater dependency on the aspect ratio and refractive index than the shell thickness and separation distance. These results may be essential for applying the spherical and non-spherical nanostructures to various absorption-based applications.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (13) ◽  
pp. 4348
Author(s):  
Piotr Mrozek ◽  
Ewa Gorodkiewicz ◽  
Paweł Falkowski ◽  
Bogusław Hościło

Comparative analysis of the sensitivity of two surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensors was conducted on a single-metallic Au sensor and bimetallic Ag–Au sensor, using a cathepsin S sensor as an example. Numerically modeled resonance curves of Au and Ag–Au layers, with parameters verified by the results of experimental reflectance measurement of real-life systems, were used for the analysis of these sensors. Mutual relationships were determined between ∂Y/∂n components of sensitivity of the Y signal in the SPR measurement to change the refractive index n of the near-surface sensing layer and ∂n/∂c sensitivity of refractive index n to change the analyte’s concentration, c, for both types of sensors. Obtained results were related to experimentally determined calibration curves of both sensors. A characteristic feature arising from the comparison of calibration curves is the similar level of Au and Ag–Au biosensors’ sensitivity in the linear range, where the signal of the AgAu sensor is at a level several times greater. It was shown that the influence of sensing surface morphology on the ∂n/∂c sensitivity component had to be incorporated to explain the features of calibration curves of sensors. The shape of the sensory surface relief was proposed to increase the sensor sensitivity at low analyte concentrations.


2021 ◽  
Vol 140 ◽  
pp. 106551
Author(s):  
Sumaiya Akhtar Mitu ◽  
Kawsar Ahmed ◽  
Fahad Ahmed Al Zahrani ◽  
Amit Grover ◽  
Murugan Senthil Mani Rajan ◽  
...  

Nanomaterials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 1325 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ru-Jing Sun ◽  
Hung Ji Huang ◽  
Chien-Nan Hsiao ◽  
Yu-Wei Lin ◽  
Bo-Huei Liao ◽  
...  

A TiN-based substrate with high reusability presented high-sensitivity refractive index measurements in a home-built surface plasmon resonance (SPR) heterodyne phase interrogation system. TiN layers with and without additional inclined-deposited TiN (i-TiN) layers on glass substrates reached high bulk charge carrier densities of 1.28 × 1022 and 1.91 × 1022 cm−3, respectively. The additional 1.4 nm i-TiN layer of the nanorod array presented a detection limit of 6.1 × 10−7 RIU and was higher than that of the 46 nm TiN layer at 1.2 × 10−6 RIU when measuring the refractive index of a glucose solution. Furthermore, the long-term durability of the TiN-based substrate demonstrated by multiple processing experiments presented a high potential for various practical sensing applications.


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