Recent Advances in Grating Coupled Surface Plasmon Resonance Technology

Advanced Optical Materials, vol. 12

Abstract

Abstract Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is a key technique in developing sensor platforms for clinical diagnostics, drug discovery, food quality, and environmental monitoring applications. While prism‐coupled (Kretschmann) SPR remains a “gold‐standard” for laboratory work‐flows due to easier fabrication, handling and high through put, other configurations such as grating‐coupled SPR (GC‐SPR) and wave‐guide mode SPR are yet to fulfil their technology potential. This work evaluates the technical aspects influencing the performance of GC‐SPR and reviews recent progress in the fabrication of such platforms. In principle, the GC‐SPR involves the illumination of the plasmonic metal film with periodic gratings to excite the surface plasmons (SP) via diffraction‐based phase matching. The real performance of the GC‐SPR is, however, heavily influenced by the topography of the grating structures produced via top‐down lithography techniques. This review discusses latest in approaches to achieve consistent plasmonic gratings with uniform features and periodicity over a large scale and explores the choice of plasmon‐active and substrate material for enhanced performance. The review also provides insights into the different GC‐SPR measurement configurations and highlights on opportunities with their potential applications as biosensors with translational capabilities.

Authors 9

1. Divagar Murugan Aachen Institute of Materials in Electrical Engineering 1

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Materials in Electrical Engineering 1 RWTH Aachen University Sommerfeldstrasse 24 52074 Aachen Germany

2. Marcel Tintelott Aachen Institute of Materials in Electrical Engineering 1

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Materials in Electrical Engineering 1 RWTH Aachen University Sommerfeldstrasse 24 52074 Aachen Germany

3. Xuan Thang Vu Aachen Institute of Materials in Electrical Engineering 1

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Materials in Electrical Engineering 1 RWTH Aachen University Sommerfeldstrasse 24 52074 Aachen Germany

4. Tetiana Kurkina Aachen Institute of Biotechnology

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Biotechnology RWTH Aachen University Worringerweg 3 52074 Aachen Germany

5. César Rodriguez‐Emmenegger Aachen

   Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats · DWI – Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials · Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia

   Affiliation as printed

   Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) Passeig Lluís Companys 23 Barcelona 08010 Spain

   DWI‐Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials Forckenbeckstr. 50 52074 Aachen Germany

   Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) Carrer de Baldiri Reixac, 10, 12 Barcelona 08028 Spain

6. Ulrich Schwaneberg Aachen Institute of Biotechnology

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Biotechnology RWTH Aachen University Worringerweg 3 52074 Aachen Germany

7. Jakub Dostálek

   Danube Private University · Czech Academy of Sciences · FZU - Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences

   Affiliation as printed

   FZU‐Institute of Physics Czech Academy of Sciences Prague 18221 Czech Republic

   Laboratory for Life Sciences and Technology (LiST) Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry Danube Private University Krems 3500 Austria

8. Sven Ingebrandt Aachen Institute of Materials in Electrical Engineering 1

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Materials in Electrical Engineering 1 RWTH Aachen University Sommerfeldstrasse 24 52074 Aachen Germany

9. Vivek Pachauri corresponding Aachen Institute of Materials in Electrical Engineering 1

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Materials in Electrical Engineering 1 RWTH Aachen University Sommerfeldstrasse 24 52074 Aachen Germany