Ultrasensitive graphene coated SPR sensor for biosensing applications

Bhavsar, K.; Prabhu, R.; Pollard, P.

Abstract

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is a rapid and sensitive technique used for probing the biomolecular interactions in real time. Several new approaches have been suggested to improve the sensitivity of SPR sensors over the last two decades. Most of them are based on creating or patterning nanostructures/nanomaterials in order to enhance the sensitivity. Graphene offers several advantages due to its special optical and structural properties. Herein, we propose a new angular interrogated dual wavelength based differential detection approach for graphene based SPR sensing to increase the sensitivity. Reflectivity of the p-polarized incident light has been calculated using the N-layer model for the most common Kretschmann configuration. Sensitivity of the SPR with and without graphene layers has been calculated for single and dual wavelength based approaches. Computational results show that the proposed graphene SPR sensor has (1 + 0.4 L) ? times higher sensitivity than the conventional gold thin film based SPR sensors. Further, increasing the number of graphene layers, L, improves the sensitivity. Where, ? represents the enhanced sensitivity due to increased binding/adsorption of biomolecules on graphene over a gold thin film. Sensitivity analysis has been carried out for a refractive index (?n) = 0.005 with L = 1 to 10.

Citation

BHAVSAR, K., PRABHU, R. and POLLARD, P. 2015. Ultrasensitive graphene coated SPR sensor for biosensing applications. In Baldini, F., Homola, J and Lieberman, R.A. (eds.) Optical sensors 2015: proceedings of 2015 International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE) optics and optoelectronics conference 2015, 13-16 April 2015, Prague, Czech Republic. Proceedings of SPIE, 9506. Bellingham, WA: SPIE [online], article ID 95060U. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2179051

• Conference Name: 2015 International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE) optics and optoelectronics conference
• Conference Location: Prague, Czech Republic
• Start Date: Apr 13, 2015
• End Date: Apr 16, 2015
• Acceptance Date: May 5, 2015
• Online Publication Date: May 5, 2015
• Publication Date: May 19, 2015
• Deposit Date: Dec 19, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 19, 2016
• Print ISSN: 0277-786X
• Electronic ISSN: 1996-756X
• Publisher: Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers
• Article Number: 9506OU
• Series Title: Proceedings of SPIE
• Series Number: 9506
• Series ISSN: 0277-786X
• ISBN: 9781628416275
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2179051
• Keywords: Surface plasmon resonance; Graphene; Optical sensors; Plasmonic sensors
• Public URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10059/2049