Theoretical investigation of detection accuracy of surface plasmon resonance sensor with dielectric layer

Abstract

We theoretically investigated detection accuracy (DA) of a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor with a top dielectric layer. The effects of the variation of thickness and the material of the dielectric layer on the DA of the SPR sensor were investigated. The result indicated that adding a top dielectric layer with a small refractive index (less than the refractive index of the analyte) can improve the DA of a traditional SPR sensor. In addition, by comparing the variation law of the DA and the electric field intensity at the analyte–dielectric interface of the SPR sensor, we studied the physical mechanism of DA variation. This study can be helpful for high-performance SPR sensor development.