Study On High Sensitivity Surface Plasmon Resonance Sensor

Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) sensors have attracted extensive attention from scholars with a lot of relevant research, because of their unique advantages such as non-markable analysis of biological sample, real-time detection, less sample volume requirement, dispensing with sample pretreatment, convenience, high sensitivity, and fast response. As the rapid development of modern SPR detection technology and the extensive biological and medical application, the integration and miniaturization of SPR systems are current developments and trends of SPR sensor technology. At the same time, the requirement for high sensitivity and resolution SPR monitoring are urgently increased. This thesis is focus on high-sensitivity SPR sensor design and development, which includes the following major works:Firstly, based on the mathematical model and sensing theory of SPR, we theoretically design a visible wavelength SPR sensor system, and then simulate the response spectrum, scope of work, and sensitivity of the designed system. In a theoretical operating wavelength range as400-800nm, its sensitivity up to10-4RIU/nm, theoretical refractive index detection limit is1.40; the theoretical limit of the refractive index detection of visible-infrared SPR sensor system is1.46, which expands the scope of refractive index detection.Secondly, we theoretically analyze and evaluate the SPP optical field characteristics of the metal nanoparticles, the feasibility evidence of improving sensitivity of nanoparticles imprinted polymer film is observed. Also through our analysis of enhancement factors of metal nanoparticles, the radius of14nm and the separation distance of50nm are the best parameter to stimulate LSPR.Thirdly, we design and build a prism-coupled SPR sensor system. The experiment results on the monitoring of saline and sucrose solution show that this SPR sensor has smart response spectrum, the relationship between the refractive index and SPR wavelength is well described by cubic polynomial fitting. Also the uniformity of the metal film and repeatability of the SPR sensor are improved by optimizing the sputtering process.Finally, we present a design scheme, theoretical analysis, and fabrication of fiber SPR sensor. The lab-scale testing of this SPR sensor by using saline solution with different refractive index shows that it is coincident with the prism based SPR sensor, which also has good SPR response signals and high sensitivity. This thesis presents our theoretical and experimental investigations on high sensitivity and miniaturization of surface Plasmon resonance sensors, which provides a kind of solid foundation for future SPR technology improvement and practicability in our group.