Research on tunable distributed SPR sensor based on bimetal film

Appl Opt. 2018 Sep 10;57(26):7591-7599. doi: 10.1364/AO.57.007591.

Abstract

In order to overcome the limitations in range of traditional prism structure surface plasmon resonance (SPR) single-point sensor measurement, a symmetric bimetallic film SPR multi-sensor structure is proposed. Based on this, the dual-channel sensing attenuation mechanism of SPR in gold and silver composite film and the improvement of sensing characteristics were studied. By optimizing the characteristics such as material and thickness, a wider range of dual-channel distributed sensing is realized. Using a He-Ne laser (632.8 nm) as the reference light source, prism-excited symmetric SPR sensing was studied theoretically for a symmetrical metal-clad dielectric waveguide using thin-film optics theory. The influence of the angle of incidence of the light source and the thickness of the dielectric layer on the performance of SPR dual formant sensing is explained. The finite-difference time-domain method was used for the simulation calculation for various thicknesses and compositions of the symmetric combined layer, resulting in the choice of silver (30 nm) and gold (10 nm). When the incident angle was 78 deg, the quality factor reached 5960, showing an excellent resonance sensing effect. The sensitivity reached a maximum of 5.25×10-5 RIU when testing the water content of an aqueous solution of honey, which proves the feasibility and practicality of the structure design. The structure improves the theoretical basis for designing an SPR multi-channel distributed sensing system, which can greatly reduce the cost of biochemical detection and significantly increase the detection efficiency.