Surface Plasmon Sensor Based on the Enhanced Light Transmission through Arrays of Nanoholes in Gold Films

Arrays of nanoholes in a gold film were used to monitor the binding of organic and biological molecules to the metallic surface. This technique is particularly sensitive to surface binding events because it is based upon the resonant surface plasmon enhanced transmission through the array of nanoholes. The sensitivity was found to be 400 nm per refractive index unit, which is comparable to other grating-based surface plasmon resonance (SPR) devices. The array of nanoholes is well suited for dense integration in a sensor chip. Furthermore, the optical geometry is collinear, which simplifies the alignment with respect to the traditional Kretschmann (reflection) arrangement for SPR sensing.