A common-path phase-shift interferometry surface plasmon resonance imaging system

A biosensing imaging system is proposed based on the integration of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and common-path phase-shift interterometry (PSI) techniques to measure the two-dimensional spatial phase variation caused by biomolecular interactions upon a sensing chip. The SPR phase imaging system can offer high resolution and high-throughout screening capabilities to analyze microarray biomolecular interaction without the need for additional labeling. With the long-term stability advantage of the common-path PSI technique even with external disturbances such as mechanical vibration, buffer flow noise, and laser unstable issue, the system can match the demand of real-time kinetic study for biomolecular interaction analysis (BIA). The SPR-PSI imaging system has achieved a detection limit of 2 x 10(-7) refraction index change, a long-term phase stability of 2.5 x 10(-4) pi rms over four hours, and a spatial phase resolution of 10(-3) pi with a lateral resolution of 100 mu m.