DESIGN OF LOW COST SURFACE PLASMON
RESONANCE SENSOR
Mihai Kusko
National Institute for Research and Development in Microtechnologies, IMT-Bucharest, Romania
E-mail: mihai.kusko@imt.ro
AbstractIn this work is analyzed from the
theoretical point of view the possibility to obtain a
surface plasmon resonance immunosensor based on
BK7 glass prism. This proposed low-cost sensor
works at fixed angle and fixed wavelength by
detecting the variation of the output intensity. From
the variation of the intensity with the SPR angle the
optimal value of the external incidence has been
assessed. The results presented in this study
demonstrated the feasibility of the proposed sensor.
Keywords: Surface plasmon resonance, sensing
1. INTRODUCTION
The surface plasmon resonance SPR
sensors are based on the changes induced by
the slight modification of the environmental
refractive index on the surface plasmon waves
which appear at the dielectric metal interfaces.
SPR sensors are used for the label free
detection by monitoring the influence induced
on the sensor response by the formation of a
very thin adsorbed layer which appear due to
the binding of the target molecules in the
buffer solution to the biorecognition molecules
[1]. Since the target molecules have a different
refractive index than the buffer solution, the
change of the refractive index induces a
detection signal.
There are a various types of SPR sensors
based on gratings, prisms or waveguides. A
review of the SPR sensors types is presented in
[2]. The most used configuration of SPR
sensor is based on prisms working in
Kretschmann configuration [3].
Usually, the based prisms SPR are working
by measuring the angular or spectral shift of
the resonances. These types of SPR sensor
cannot be cheaply manufactured and most of
them are not suitable for handheld operation.
The SPR sensors based on the intensity
interrogation offer the advantage of real-time
monitoring of binding processes [4] and multi-
array sensing [5]. Since the SPR sensors based
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on the intensity interrogation do not need
angular or wavelength sweeping, they can be
more compact, cost-effective and robust than
other configurations SPR sensor making them
serious candidates for fast clinical diagnosis
applications.
In a previous paper [6] a SPR sensor based
on polymer prism has been analyzed both
theoretically and experimentally. In the present
paper a theoretical analysis of a SPR sensor
based on BK7 glass prism is presented. This
glass material has been chosen due to the
possibility to easily manufacture prisms or
other components. The principal aim of this
study is to obtain a monotonic response with
the concentration of the analyte. Besides the
calculation of the output intensity versus the
refractive index of the analyte, the influence of
very thin layer of few nanometers on the
output intensity is also evaluated.
2. ANALYSIS
The scheme of the sensor is presented in
figure 1. The sensor can be fabricated by
attaching a glass prism to a glass plate from the
same type of glass. The prism has 45 degrees
the prism's angle. The bonding between prism
and plate is usually obtained with an index
matching layer which has the role to prevent
total internal reflections. On the opposite side
of the plate one can define the sensing area by
metal deposition and configuration using
standard lithographic techniques and also one
can integrate the microfluidic circuit.
The radiation with 635 nm wavelength
emitted from a laser diode enters in the prism
at a certain degree to the base of the prism. The
surface plasmon wave interacts with p-
polarized radiation and the intensity of the
reflected radiation is influenced by the change
of the refractive index in the vicinity of the
gold layer. In order to record accurately the
sensor response it is necessary to place a incidence angle is considered in the present
polarization filter in front of the detector so work.
that only the intensity of the p-polarized
radiation is measured.

Fig. 2. Scheme used for determination of the external

incidence angle.

From figure 2 one can obtain the following

Fig. 1. The scheme of the proposed sensor. relations:

The refractive index of the glass prism and + + =
2 (1)
plate is 1.515. The metal considered here is
gold. Practically, there is a need of a thin layer = +
of Cr to help the adherence of the gold layer,
but the Cr layer is only a few nanometers so it The above relations are combined with the
is neglected in this analysis. The refractive Snell's law
index of Au at 635 nm is 0.1937 - i3.0966. The sin = n sin (2)
thickness of the gold layer is 40 nm. The
refractive index of the analyte can vary from Finally, one can obtain the following
1.33 corresponding to the water refractive relation between the external incidence angle
index to 1.36 corresponding to the ethanol and the SPR angle
refractive index. Any intermediate value may
be obtained by mixing water and ethanol in cos( + )
solutions with various concentrations.
= arcsin + (3)
n
Although the sensor is designed for sensing the
presence of the adlayer, the sensor calibration
For the determination of the optimum
with various values of the bulk refractive index
external incidence angle it is necessary to plot
of the analyte is a common practice. The
SPR curves i.e. the variation of the reflected
refractive index of the adlayer is considered in
radiation intensity with the SPR angle. Here,
this analysis to be 1.5 and corresponds to the
two values of the analyte refractive index, 1.33
refractive index of proteins. The bulk
and 1.36, respectively, have been chosen for
refractive index of the buffer solution is 1.33.
plotting their corresponding SPR curves in
The relation between the angle defined by
order to identify the SPR angle domains where
the incident radiation path with the prism base
the sensor response varies monotonically with
(the external incidence angle) and the
the value of the refractive index or with the
incidence angle on the inner surface of the
thickness of the adlayer. The two SPR curves
prism (the SPR angle) can be deduced with the
are represented in figure 3.
help of the scheme represented in figure 2. The
In the figure 3 the solid curve corresponds
index matching layer has not been represented
to n 1.33 and the dashed curve corresponds to
in figure 2 for the sake of simplicity. The
n 1.36. As one can easily notice, the angular
external incidence angle is noted and the
domain 74... 79 degrees is not suitable for
SPR angle is noted .
monotonic response of the sensor for this range
The approach resembles the one presented
of the refractive indexes since the curves do
in [6], but the influence of the external
not share the same trend. As a rule of thumb,

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the monotonic region must always lay outside
the region defined by the two minima. The
optimal SPR angle seems to be centered at 72
degrees.
Fig. 3. SPR curves for two values of the analyte
refractive index.
Since the optimal SPR angle is determined,
the external incidence angle can be calculated
using the equations written above.
From eq. (3) one can obtain the external
incidence angle equal to 1.5 in order to obtain
72 degrees for SPR angle. If the external
incidence angle is zero, the SPR angle is 72.82.
The dependence of the intensity of the
reflected radiation on the refractive index of
the analyte is shown in figure 4.
Fig. 4. The variation of the reflectivity with the variation
of the refractive index of the analyte.
In the figure 4 the solid line corresponds to
the 0 degrees external incidence angle and the
dashed line corresponds to the 1.5 degrees
external incidence angle.
A similar analysis has been performed for
the case of an adlayer. The same external
253
incidence angles were considered. The results
are shown in the figure 5.
In the figure 5 the solid line corresponds to
the 0 degrees external incidence angle and the
dashed line corresponds to the 1.5 degrees
external incidence angle.
Fig. 5. The variation of the reflectivity with the
thickness of the adlayer.
3. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper the results of the design
studies of a SPR sensor based on BK7 glass
prism are presented. The principal aim of this
work has been to find a reliable configuration
which is able to render a monotonic response
both for analyte refractive index variation from
1.33 to 1.36 but also for the thickness of
adlayers ranging from 0 to 10 nm. From
plotting the SPR curves it has been obtained
that the best SPR angle has the value of 72
degrees. This value corresponds to an external
incidence angle of 1.5 degrees.
The variations of the reflectivity (the
output) calculated for 0 degrees and
respectively 1.5 degrees external incidence
angle shown a quasi-linear response both for
variation of the bulk analyte refractive index
and for the variation of the thickness of the
adlayers. The sensor response is good which
make him suitable for obtaining good
sensitivities. From the results presented in
figures 4 and 5 one can see there are no large
variations if the external incidence angle
changes which seems to offer a good tolerance
to setup errors.
As a final conclusion, the results obtained
in this work demonstrate one can fabricate a
SPR sensor suitable for handheld operation
which could exhibit good working
performances.
AcknowledgementThe research presented in
this paper is supported by Sectoral Operational
Programme Human Resources Development
(SOP HRD), financed from the European
Social Fund and by the Romanian Government
under the contract number
POSDRU/89/1.5/S/63700.

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