Optimization of Surface Plasmon Resonance Biosensor with Ag/Au Multilayer Structure and Fiber-Optic Miniaturization

In this paper, we report a novel wavelength interrogation-based surface plasmon resonance (SPR) system, in which a film of three Ag layers and three Au layers are alternately deposited on a Kretschmann configuration as sensing element. This multilayer film shows higher sensitivity for refractive index (RI) measurement by comparing with single Au layer structure, which is consistent with its theoretical calculation. A sensitivity range of 2056–5893 nm/RIU can be achieved, which is comparable to RI sensitivities of other wavelength-modulated SPR sensors. Compared with Ag film, this Ag/Au multilayer arrangement offers anti-oxidant protection. This SPR biosensor based on a cost-effective Ag/Au multilayer structure is applicable to the real-time detection of specific interactions and dissociation of low protein concentrations. To extend the application of this highly-sensitive metal film device, we integrated this concept on an optical fiber. The range of RI sensitivities with Ag/Au multilayer was 1847–3309 nm/RIU. This miniaturized Ag/Au multilayer-based fiber optic sensor has a broad application in chemical and biological sensing.     

A New Route to Glucose Sensing Based on Surface Plasmon Resonance Using Polyindole

In the present study, we report the first polyindole-modified metal (Au) as a glucose sensor utilizing surface plasmon resonance (SPR) technique. Polyindole (PIn) was deposited by spin coating to modify the surface of the gold disk. Sensor surface was prepared by immobilizing glucose oxidase on the polyindole-modified gold disk. Different concentrations of glucose were taken to analyze the sensor response. A change in refractive index of the film was observed due to the chemical reactions of glucose with glucose oxidase. The response of the sensor is fast and highly sensitive to low concentrations of glucose and the sensitivity increases in the range of 0.075–0.5 μM. The use of Au/polyindole (PIn/Au) substrates for SPR-based study of bio-molecular sensing has been demonstrated.     

A Study of Improved Bimetallic Graphene–Based Fiber Optic Surface Plasmon Resonance (FOSPR) Biosensor

Plasmonics - In the present communication, a fiber optic biosensor based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR) phenomenon, having bilayers of Ag-Pt with graphene as a sensing layer, is presented....     

Doped Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes in Propagating Surface Plasmon Resonance-Based Fiber Optic Refractive Index Sensing

We propose a surface plasmon resonance (SPR)-based fiber coupled refractive index sensing probe utilizing single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) as the upper most layer. The sensor is designed by considering indium tin oxide (ITO) film on the bare core of a multi-moded step-index fiber, followed by the deposition of silicon, and then by that of the highly doped bundled SWCNTs layers. The film thicknesses of different constituent layers are optimized with respect to the sensitivity and the detection accuracy of the sensor. The theoretical analysis results in high sensitivity of 9.78 μm per refractive index unit (μm/RIU) for the optimized probe in the infra-red (IR) region of the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum.     

Surface Plasmon Resonance Based Fiber Optic Ammonia Sensor Utilizing Bromocresol Purple

In this paper, a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) based fiber optic ammonia gas sensor has been designed and fabricated using bromocresol purple (BCP) as sensing element. The sensor works under wavelength modulation scheme. The detection of ammonia gas has been carried out at room temperature. Three different kinds of film coating configurations, namely silver + BCP, gold + BCP, and silver + silicon + BCP on the unclad portion of the fiber have been used for studying the role of each layer. Further, to optimize the performance of the sensor, the films of varying thicknesses were coated using thermal evaporation technique. Experiments have been performed for the ammonia concentrations ranging from 0 to 150 ppm around the probe. To record the SPR spectrum, light from a polychromatic source is launched in the fiber and the spectrum is recorded at the other end of the fiber. The spectrum has a peak at lower wavelength while a dip at the higher wavelength. The dip corresponds to SPR while the peak appears to be due to fluorescence properties of the dye. It has been observed that as the ammonia gas comes in contact of the BCP layer, it changes the refractive index of the BCP dye which, in turn, changes the resonance wavelength. Further, the change in refractive index increases as the concentration of ammonia gas increases up to certain concentration of ammonia after that it saturates. Silicon layer has been shown as a protection layer for silver and gold from oxidation and acts as a tuner of wavelength. The proposed ammonia sensor has small response as well as recovery time.     

A miniature fiber optic surface plasmon resonance sensor for fast detection of Staphylococcal enterotoxin B

A fiber optic surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensor for detection of Staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB) is reported. The sensor is based on spectral interrogation of surface plasmons in a miniature sensing element based on a side-polished single-mode optical fiber with a thin metal overlayer. For specific detection of SEB, the SPR sensor is functionalized with a covalently crosslinked double-layer of antibodies against SEB. The SPR biosensor is demonstrated to be able to detect ng/ml concentrations of SEB in less than 10 min.     

Surface Plasmon Resonance-Based Tapered Fiber Optic Sensor: Sensitivity Enhancement by Introducing a Teflon Layer Between Core and Metal Layer

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR)-based tapered fiber optic sensor with Teflon as a dielectric sandwiched between metal and tapered fiber core is proposed. The sensitivity of the sensor has been maximized using different combinations of metal and Teflon layer thicknesses for a given taper ratio. The study shows that the sensitivity of the sensor with the introduction of dielectric (Teflon) increases with the increase in the taper ratio. The maximum sensitivity achieved for a given taper ratio is around 15 times higher than the general SPR-based fiber optic sensor.     

High Sensitivity in Ni-Based SPR Sensor of Blue Phosphorene/Transition Metal Dichalcogenides Hybrid Nanostructure

In the present work, a novel surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor consisting of the nickel (Ni) film with hybrid structure of blue phosphorene (BlueP)/transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) is reported. By optimizing the thickness of Ni layer and BlueP/TMDCs, the maximum sensitivity with 270°/RIU for the Ni-BlueP/WS₂ is achieved. Use of BlueP/TMDCs layer facilitates the sensitivity due to its high electron concentration, high mobility, optical, and electronic properties. Compared with the conventional Ni-based SPR sensor, the sensitivity of the proposed one is enhanced up to ~ 60.7%. We hope that the SPR sensor has potential application prospects in chemical detection, medical diagnostic, optical sensing, etc. due to its high sensitivity.

     

Improving the Sensitivity of Fiber Surface Plasmon Resonance Sensor by Filling Liquid in a Hollow Core Photonic Crystal Fiber

Inspired by the classic theory, we suggest that the performance of a D-shaped fiber optical surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor can be improved by manipulating the fiber core mode. To demonstrate this, we propose a novel fiber SPR sensor based on a hollow core photonic crystal fiber with liquid mixture filled in the core. The fiber sensor design involves a side-polished fiber with gold film deposited on the polished plane and liquid filling. Numerical simulation results suggest that by tuning the refractive index of the liquid mixture, the predicted sensitivity will be over 6,430 nm/refractive index unit for an aqueous environment, which is competitive for fiber chemical sensing. This optimization method may lead to an ultrahigh sensitivityfiber optical biosensor.     

Metallic Grating-Assisted Fiber Optic SPR Sensor with Extreme Sensitivity in IR Region

We theoretically propose a surface plasmon resonance (SPR)-based fiber optic refractive index (RI) sensor. A surface plasmon exciting metallic grating formed with the alternation of indium tin oxide (ITO) and silver (Ag) stripes is considered on the core of the fiber. A thin film of silicon is used as an overlay. Silicon film not only protects the metallic grating from oxidation but also enhances the field to improve the device sensitivity. The sensor is characterized in terms of sensitivity, detection accuracy (DA), figure of merit (FoM), and quality factor (QF). The maximum sensitivity in the RI range 1.33 to 1.38 refractive index unit (RIU) is reported to be?~25 µm/RIU in infra-red region of investigation.

     

Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance-Based Fiber Optic U-Shaped Biosensor for the Detection of Blood Glucose

In the present study, we report the first fiber optic glucose sensor utilizing localized surface plasmon resonance of metal nanoparticles. The fiber was bent in the form of a U-shaped probe for point detection and sensitivity enhancement. The probe was prepared by first attaching gold nanoparticles on the optical fiber core and then immobilizing glucose oxidase over it. The sensor operates in the intensity modulation scheme in which the absorbance is measured with respect to the changes in the glucose concentration. The presence of glucose in the vicinity of the sensing region changes the refractive index of the film due to the chemical reactions with glucose oxidase. The absorbance of the metal nanoparticle changes significantly due to local refractive index change. The fiber optic U-shaped probes of different bending radii were fabricated and it has been found that the probe with bending radius around 0.982?mm possesses the maximum sensitivity. The response of the sensor is fast and requires very small volume of sensing sample (??150???l) which makes it more suitable for commercialization and better than present commercial sensors, which require about 1.5?ml of blood for the detection of glucose.     

Platinum Layers Sandwiched Between Black Phosphorous and Graphene for Enhanced SPR Sensor Performance

Highly sensitive surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor consisting of Ag-Pt bimetallic films sandwiched with 2D materials black phosphorus (BP) and graphene over Pt layer in Kretschmann configuration is analyzed theoretically using the transfer matrix method. Numerical results show that upon suitable optimization of thickness of Ag-Pt layers and the number of layers of BP and graphene, sensitivity as high as 412°/RIU (degree/refractive index unit) can be achieved for p-polarized light of wavelength 633 nm. This performance can be tuned and controlled by changing the number of layers of BP and graphene. Furthermore, the addition of graphene and heterostructures of black phosphorus not only improved the sensitivity of the sensor but also kept the FWHM of the resonance curve much smaller than the conventional sensor utilizing Au as plasmonic metal and hence improved the resolution to a significant extent. We expect that this new proposed design will be useful for medical diagnosis, biomolecular detection, and chemical examination.

     

Enhanced surface plasmon resonance with the modified catalytic growth of Au nanoparticles

The catalytic growth of Au nanoparticles (AuNPs) has been employed in several analytical methods for improving the detection sensitivity, or integrated with the enzyme reactions for the quantitative detection of the respective substrates. However, the catalytic growth of Au nanoparticles do not work in some situations, such as surface plasmon resonance (SPR), electrochemistry, where metal matrices were used, because metal matrices used in these techniques, e.g. Au, are susceptible to metal deposition, which increased the background seriously. In this work, a SiO(2) layer was vapor-deposited on the gold film. The inhibition of metal deposition by this SiO(2) layer was investigated by SPR sensor. The results showed that the SiO(2) layer could avoid the deposition of metal on Au film. With the low background achieved by SiO(2)-coated Au films, sensitive detection of DNA hybridization using the catalytic growth of Au nanoparticles enhanced SPR was demonstrated. The work described here maybe helpful for the development of sensitive bioanalytical methods.     

Design and performances of immunoassay based on SPR biosensor with magnetic microbeads

A surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensor system was developed for immunoassay, based on the conjugates of magnetic microbeads coupling with antibody which could be trapped on the Au film firmly due to the magnetic force. The magnetic microbeads were used as the solid support for the heat shock protein 70 (Hsp 70) antibody and antibody immobilized magnetic microbeads were utilized instead of the single antibody for the determination of Hsp 70. Since the magnetic bead is coated with dextran, the antibodies and some specific biomolecular receptors can be immobilized using a variety of chemical reactions. Compared to traditional antibody immobilization on the sensing film, there is not a covalent link between the Au film and the antibody. There is a great advantage in that sensor can be stripped and reused, and the same chemistry used to derivative dextran-coated SPR sensors can be used for the magnetic bead-coated sensors. The sensing layer was formed well. Different dilution ratios (v/v) of the conjugates result in different detectable ranges. When the dilution ratios of the conjugate are 1:10 and 1:5, the lowest concentrations of Hsp 70 that can be detected are 1.50 and 0.30 microg ml(-1), respectively.     

Comparison of Performance Parameters of Conventional and Nano-plasmonic Fiber Optic Sensors

A detailed comparative analysis is carried out between two fiber optic surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor probes with different bimetallic configurations. One consists of a step arrangement of thin layers of silver and gold. Another one consists of alloy layer formed of spherical silver and gold nanoparticles. Their sensitivity and detection accuracy are compared. Better configuration is predicted with proper logics and rationales.     

High-Sensitivity Refractive Index Sensor Based on D-Shaped Photonic Crystal Fiber with Rectangular Lattice and Nanoscale Gold Film

We propose and investigate a D-shaped photonic fiber refractive index sensor with rectangular lattice based on surface plasmon resonance. In such sensor, the nanoscale gold metal film is deposited on the flat surface where it is side polished. Numerical results show that the average sensitivity of Au-metalized surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor could reach as high as 8,129 nm/refractive index unit (RIU) in the dynamic index range from 1.35 to 1.41 as well as 2,000 nm/RIU from 1.33 to 1.35. Compared to conventional Au-metalized SPR sensors, the performance of our device is obviously better, and the production process is greatly simplified.     

Using the nanoimprint-in-metal method to prepare corrugated metal structures for plasmonic biosensors through both surface plasmon resonance and index-matching effects

In this study, we prepared metallic corrugated structures for use as highly sensitive plasmonic sensors. Relying on the direct nanoimprint-in-metal method, fabrication of this metallic corrugated structure was readily achieved in a single step. The metallic corrugated structures were capable of sensing both surface plasmon resonance (SPR) wavelengths and index-matching effects. The corrugated Au films exhibited high sensitivity (ca. 800 nm/RIU), comparable with or even higher than those of other reported SPR-based sensors. Because of the unique index-matching effect, refractometric sensing could also be performed by measuring the transmission intensity of the Au/substrate SPR mode-conveniently, without a spectrometer. In the last, we demonstrated the corrugated Au film was capable of sensing biomolecules, revealing the ability of the structure to be a highly sensitive biosensor.     

SPR Label-Free Biosensor with Oxide-Metal-Oxide-Coated D-Typed Optical Fiber: a Theoretical Study

In this article, a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensor based on D-typed optical fiber coated by Al₂O₃/Ag/Al₂O₃ film is investigated numerically. Resonance in near infrared with an optimized architecture is achieved. Refractive index sensitivity of 6558 nm/RIU (refractive index unit) and detection limit of 1.5 × 10⁻⁶ RIU, corresponding to 0.4357 nm/μM and detection limit of 23 nM in BSA (bovine serum albumin) concentration sensing, are obtained. The analysis of the performance of the sensor in gaseous sensing indicates that this proposed SPR sensor is much suitable for label-free biosensing in aqueous media.

     

Design Analysis of Refractive Index Sensor with High Quality Factor Using Au-Al<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>3</Subscript> Grating on Aluminum

We propose a surface plasmon resonance (SPR)-based refractive index sensor using gold-alumina grating over aluminum film for biosensing. Conventional SPR sensor based on gold grating exhibits broader SPR dips whereas that based on aluminum grating exhibits narrow reflection dip. A narrow reflection dip is desirable as it provides good resolution and improves the accuracy of measurement. Aluminum is less stable and generally is not preferred for an SPR-based sensor. It is more prone to being oxidized, which reduces the sensitivity and increases the width of the reflection dip of the sensor. While gold cannot provide narrow SPR reflection dips, but is used as an SPR active metal due to its more chemical stability. In order to improve the accuracy of gold grating-based sensor while taking care of oxidation problem of aluminum, in this paper, we propose a gold grating over aluminum film for SPR-based sensor and show that this configuration improves the sensitivity and the detection accuracy of the conventional sensor. Moreover, the oxidation problem is reduced to some extent as a part of aluminum is covered with gold. In order to completely avoid the oxidation of aluminum, we further propose to cover the exposed part of the aluminum with alumina and show that this configuration further improves the accuracy by reducing the width of the SPR reflection dip without affecting the sensitivity significantly. Numerical simulations show that sensitivity of proposed sensor is 270.33°/RIU with quality factor of more than 267.65 RIU^?1.     

A Polarization-independent SPR Sensor Based on Photonic Crystal Fiber for Low RI Detection

A surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor based on a photonic crystal fiber (PCF) is proposed for low refractive index (RI) detection. The core of PCF is formed by two-layer air walls and either layer is composed of six identical sector rings with negative curvature. Plasmonic material gold (Au) is coated on the external cladding surface. Finite element method (FEM) is applied to investigate the performance of the SPR sensor. Results show that the sensor is independent of polarization due to the coincident coupling properties of the two polarized modes. Additionally, in low RI ranging from 1.20 to 1.33, the sensor keeps a high spectral sensitivity with an average value of 7738 nm/RIU. When RI varies from 1.32 to 1.33, the resolution reaches to its maximum of 8.3 × 10⁻⁶. The proposed sensor shows much significance in low RI detection, which is promising in real-time measurement for medical, water pollution, and humidity.