An optical-absorption-based surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor is proposed, and its theoretical aspects are discussed in terms of mathematical descriptions and numerical simulations of the SPR curve. The response theory of the absorption-based SPR sensing is based on the expansion of Kretchmann's SPR theory into the case in which optical absorption in the sensing layer is expressed by the Lorentz model. The numerical simulations were performed using a three-layer Fresnel equation of p-polarization. It was found that SPR curve behavior of the absorption-based SPR sensor depends on the frequency relation between the light source and the optical absorption and the thickness of the metal layer. The SPR curve behavior is divided into three types according to the large, small, and equal relations between excitation and absorption frequencies. Each type of behavior is further divided into two types that are due to thin and thick metal layers. The theory of this new type of sensor based on optical absorption was explained and demonstrated by the simulation of the SPR curves using optical parameters relating to a silver-metal-based SPR sensor.

No abstract

A surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sodium ion sensor using an ion optode membrane film was experimentally and theoretically described based on an absorption-based SPR principle proposed in our previous article (Kurihara, K; Suzuki, K. AnaL Chem. 2002, 74, 696-701). The sodium ion concentrations from 10(-6) to 10(-1) have been successfully determined not only by the resonance angle diagnosis of the SPR curve but also by the minimum reflectance one. The ion optode film was plasticized poly(vinyl chloride) including a neutral sodium ionophore, a pH-sensitive cationic dye, and an anionic additive. Its optical absorption intensity changed with the sodium ion concentrations. The SPR ion sensor physically measured the complex refractive index caused by the absorption in the ion optode film. We have exhaustively investigated the experimental response behavior of the SPR curve relative to the sodium ion concentrations by comparison with numerically simulated SPR curves using a three-layer Fresnel equation including experimental values for the sodium ion optode membrane film. As predicted by the absorption-based SPR principle, the SPR curve behavior of the SPR ion sensors depended on two factors: one was the relation between the excitation frequency of the light source and the absorption maximum frequency in the ion optode film while the other was the gold metallic thickness in the Kretchmann configuration. The concept and practical theory of an absorption-based SPR sensor not only have been proved by the experimental results of the SPR sodium ion sensor but also have successfully allowed flexible ion sensing in an SPR sensor, which would be very difficult without the absorption mechanism in the ion optode film.