Abstract
In this paper; the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor with a porous silica film was studied. The effect of the thickness and porosity of the porous silica film on the performance of the sensor was analyzed. The results indicated that the figure of merit (FOM) of an SPR sensor can be enhanced by using a porous silica film with a low-refractive-index. Particularly; the FOM of an SPR sensor with 40 nm thick 90% porosity porous silica film; whose refractive index is 1.04 was improved by 311% when compared with that of a traditional SPR sensor. Furthermore; it was found that the decrease in the refractive index or the increase in the thickness of the low-refractive-index porous silica film can enlarge the FOM enhancement. It is believed that the proposed SPR sensor with a low-refractive-index porous silica film will be helpful for high-performance SPR sensors development.
Highlights
The surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor, as an important optical sensor, has been used in chemical and biochemical sensing, gases sensing, medical diagnostics, and food safety detection for years [1,2,3]
The performance of a prism-based SPR sensor is generally determined by the wavelength and incident angle of the light source, the material and thickness of each film used in the SPR sensor, and the material of the prism and analyte [25]
A 45-degree SF-11L glass was used as the prism in the SPR sensor [27], and water was considered as the analyte in our simulations
Summary
The surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor, as an important optical sensor, has been used in chemical and biochemical sensing, gases sensing, medical diagnostics, and food safety detection for years [1,2,3]. Among the various types of SPR sensors, one of the widely used geometries is the Kretschmann configuration which is generally prepared by evaporating a thin metal film on top of a glass prism In this configuration, p-polarized light illuminates on the metal surface from the prism side to excite the surface plasmon wave (SPW) [7]. When the incident angle of the light source fulfills the SPR requirements, the propagation constant of incident light along the interface will match that of the SPW [8], causing the collective oscillation of electrons on the surface of the metal [9,10] In this case, the energy of incident light transfers onto the surface plasmons, which leads to a significant decrease in the reflectance, and forms a narrow dip in the reflectance spectrum [11]. In the angular interrogation mode, a change in the analyte refractive index causes a shift in the resonance angle (at which the minimum reflectance is realized) for a given wavelength [12]
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