Optical surface plasmon resonance sensor designs

Beginning from low level concepts, the basic physics behind the optical excitations of surface plasmon polaritons by volume electromagnetic wave under resonance prism coupling condition using both Otto and Kretchmann configurations is explained. Various changes to surface plasmon resonance profile due to any modification occurring at metal/dielectric interface are discussed. Organic thin film of Calix resorcinarene are deposited on gold coated glass slides by spin coating technique. The surface plasmon resonance angle shift due to this organic layer as compared with bare gold film predicts the sensitivity of surface plasmons to any modification occurring at the metal/dielectric interface. Investigations ar made to study the change of ambient close to the film. By the changing the layer system from glass/gold/calix/air to glass/gold/calix/water, the SPR curve is greatly changed. Exploitation of these changes on designing different optical sensors are reviewed. Finally a short summary of potential device application is given.