Development of an enhanced surface plasmon resonance sensor substrate by investigating a periodic nanohole array configuration

Abstract

The sensor system utilizing a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) with nanoparticles and nanostructures measures a peak wavelength shift. In order to enhance the measurement accuracy, it is important to acquire the higher and sharper peak wavelength so as to identify accurately the position of the peak wavelength. We developed an enhanced SPR sensor substrate by investigating the configuration of a periodic nanohole array. We simulated the effects of the configuration parameters. The simulation results revealed that the proposed sensor substrate achieved the higher and sharper peak wavelength by strengthening the SPR intensity as the number of holes per unit structure was increased from one to three, and with allocation of the unit structure in a triangular lattice so as to have one rotational symmetry. We also verified our simulation results experimentally by fabricating nanohole array sensor substrates.