Contents
Goal: Explore the relationship between the thickness of a Silver sample and angle and intensity at which SPR occurs, and decipher the optimal thickness for SPR.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank both Kevin Booth and Jacob Ritz for their time and guidance throughout this project. We also appreciate the access to Dr. Zimmermann’s vacuum evaporation deposition machine.
References:
[1] Bethel University: Nathan C Lindquist PhD, Plasmonics and Surface-Enhanced Spectroscopy, 2012.
[2] Erik J. S ́anchez, Prof.: Portland State University, Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) Lab, 2010.
[3] Nagata, Kazuhiro., et al. Real-Time Analysis of Biomolecular Interactions : Applications of BIACORE.
Springer, 2000.
[4] Olivier Pluchery, Romain Vayron, Kha-Man Van, Laboratory Experiments for Exploring the Surface
Plasmon Resonance, 2011.
[5] Springer, Plasmonics: From Basic to Advanced Topics, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2012.
[6] Yun Liu, Shimeng Chen, Qiang Liu, Jean-Fran ̧cois Masson, and Wei Peng, Compact multi-channel surface
plasmon resonance sensor for real-time multi-analyte biosensing, Opt. Express 23, 20540-20548, 2015.
The factors that contribute to optimizing the SPR can all be varied in order to model the ideal conditions for SPR to occur. The best model that explains the contribution of these variables, especially thickness of the metal, are the Fresnel Equations which describe the behavior of reflectance between the surface of the metal and the prism [2]. This is the model that we will attempt to recreate and that we will analyze our results based upon.
When sending light at a thin sample of silver only certain wavelengths of light can resonate in the electrons at the surface of the gas. When photons at the appropriate wavelength hit the surface it will be absorbed and form a surface plasmon, leaving a dark band in the reflection where the absorbed photons would’ve landed [3]. This is how we will observe the SPR that occurs.