Surface plasmon resonance imaging

The features and application areas of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) imaging technique are discussed. SPR imaging is an optical surface sensitive technique that probes changes in the refractive index of less than 0.0001 or the thickness of thin films of less than 1 nm with a spatial resolution of approximately 2 μm. The maximal lateral resolution of SPR imaging is determined by the propagation length of surface plasmon wave and depended on the optical parameters of the prism, the metal layer and the sample. The results have shown that when plasmon excitation is maximum, the phase of the reflected light changes abruptly.