Optical Thickness Monitoring as a Strategic Element for the Development of SPR Sensing Applications

Sensors (Basel). 2020 Mar 25;20(7):1807. doi: 10.3390/s20071807.

Abstract

The importance of the monitoring of thickness and rate deposition is indispensable for the fabrication of thin film sensors, such as SPR sensors. The sensitivity of SPR responses varies with the thickness of the film, as well as the linear range. Thus, in the present work, we presented an experimental study of the plasmonic response of Cr/Au thin films deposited onto glass slides by evaporation, based on both a rotation and no-rotation system. The results show that the thickness of the gold film varies from 240 to 620 Å, depending on the glass slide position. The SPR response curves obtained experimentally were compared with simulated plasmonic responses and different parameters such as resonance angle, and the depth, slope and half-width of the SPR curve were analysed.

Keywords: biosensor; optical constant; optical properties of surfaces; surface plasmon resonance; thin-film coating.