High Sensitivity Surface Plasmon Resonance Sensor Based on Periodic Multilayer Thin Films

• Published in: Nanomaterials (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 11; no. 12; p. 3399
• Main Authors: Cai, Haoyuan, Shan, Shihan, Wang, Xiaoping
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 15.12.2021; MDPI
• Subjects: Biosensors; Chemical detection; genetic algorithm; Genetic algorithms; Gold; Graphene; high sensitivity; multilayer thin film; Multilayers; Optimization; Oxidation; Population; Porous materials; Refractivity; Resonance; Sensors; Silver; SPR sensor; Surface plasmon resonance; Thin films; Time domain analysis; Titanium dioxide; genetic algorithm; high sensitivity; multilayer thin film; SPR sensor
• ISSN: 2079-4991; 2079-4991
• DOI: 10.3390/nano11123399

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensors consisting of alternate layers of silver (Ag) and TiO thin film have been proposed as a high sensitivity biosensor. The structure not only prevents the Ag film from oxidation, but also enhances the field inside the structure, thereby improving the performance of the sensor. Genetic algorithm (GA) was used to optimize the proposed structure and its maximum angular sensitivity was 384°/RIU (refractive index unit) at the refractive index environment of 1.3425, which is about 3.12 times that of the conventional Ag-based biosensor. A detailed discussion, based on the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method, revealed that an enhanced evanescent field at the top layer-analyte region results in the ultra-sensitivity characteristic. We expect that the proposed structure can be a suitable biosensor for chemical detection, clinical diagnostics, and biological examination.