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In this work, the multilayer of the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor was optimized to achieve the maximum sensor sensitivity. By optimizing the thickness of the silver layer (Ag) and dielectric films (TiO2 and AlAs), the optimum sensitivity of the SPR sensor could be obtained. The performance of the SPR sensor proposed was compared with control simulations utilizing zinc oxide (ZnO) and molybdenum oxide (MoO3). The numerical results indicate that the figure-of-merits (FOM) of the SPR sensor was achieved around 150/RIU, corresponding to the sensor sensitivity of 162.79°/RIU with the optimized thicknesses of the TiO2, Ag, and AlAs layers of 140 nm, 60 nm, and 25 nm, respectively. This refractive index sensor shows the FOM to have high detection accuracy and high sensitivity that lead to finding potential application in bio-chemical detection with a small volume of liquid used in biological diagnosis.

This brief review presents the recent process in optical sensors based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR). In particular, it will focus on the optical sensors that employ the change of refractive index as the sensing transduction signal. Various detection schemes of optical sensors which include phase modulation, wavelength modulation and intensity modulation are discussed. The performance advantageous and disadvantageous of the description of optical sensors structure and their respective experimental configurations are also described. The examples of detection in chemistry, biology and heavy metals will be presented. Future prospects of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensing technology is also discussed.

We present a real-time quantitative immunoassay to detect fibrinogen in the blood plasma of Alzheimer’s disease patients using multimode fiber optical sensors in which surface plasmon resonance (SPR) was employed. Nanometer-thick bimetals including silver and aluminum were coated onto the core surface of the clad-free part (5 cm long) of the fiber for SPR excitation at the He-Ne laser wavelength of 632.8 nm. The histidine-tagged peptide was then coated on the metal surface to immobilize the fibrinogen antibody for the selective capture of fibrinogen among the proteins in the patient blood plasma. The SPR fiber optical sensor enabled quantitative detection of concentrations of fibrinogen from the different human patient blood at a detection limit of ∼20 ng/ml. We also observed a correlation in the fibrinogen concentration measurement between enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and our SPR fiber-based sensors. This suggests that the presented SPR fiber-based sensors that do not rely on the use of labels such as fluorophores can be used for a real-time quantitative assay of a specific protein such as fibrinogen in a human blood that is known to contain many other kinds of proteins together.

We present the immunoassay of tau proteins (total tau and phosphorylated tau) in human sera using surface plasmon resonance (SPR) fiber sensors. This assay aimed at harvesting the advantages of using both SPR fiber sensors and a blood-based assay to demonstrate label-free point-of-care-testing (POCT) patient-friendly assay in a compact format for the early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). For conducting the assay, we used human sera of 40 subjects divided into halves, which were grouped into AD patients and control groups according to a number of neuropsychological tests. We found that on an average, the concentrations of both total tau and phosphorylated tau proteins (all known to be higher in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and the brain) turned out to be higher in human sera of AD patients than in controls. The limits of detection of total tau and phosphorylated tau proteins were 2.4 pg mL−1 and 1.6 pg mL−1, respectively. In particular, it was found that the AD group exhibited average concentration of total tau proteins 6-fold higher than the control group, while concentration of phosphorylated tau proteins was 3-fold higher than that of the control. We can attribute this inhomogeneity between both types of tau proteins (in terms of increase of control-to-AD in average concentration) to un-phosphorylated tau proteins being more likely to be produced in blood than phosphorylated tau proteins, which possibly is one of the potential key elements playing an important role in AD progress.

Tan Tai Nguyen,1 Sun Oh Bea,1 Dong Min Kim,2 Won Jung Yoon,3 Jin-Won Park,4 Seong Soo A An,1 Heongkyu Ju1,5,6 1Department of Bionano Technology, College of Bionano Technology, Gachon University, Seongnam, 2Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Hongik University, Sejong City, 3Department of Chemical and Bio Engineering, Gachon University, Seongnam, 4Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, College of Energy and Biotechnology, Seoul National University of Science and Technology, Seoul, 5Department of Nanophysics, College of Bionano Technology, Gachon University, Seongnam, 6Neuroscience Institute, Gil Hospital, Incheon, South Korea Purpose: We present the regenerative label-free fiber optical biosensor that exploits surface plasmon resonance for quantitative detection of fibrinogen (Fbg) extracted from human blood plasma.Materials and methods: The sensor head was made up of a multimode optical fiber with its polymer cladding replaced by metal composite of nanometer thickness made of silver, aluminum, and nickel. The Ni layer coated allowed a direct immobilization of histidine-tagged peptide (HP) on its metal surface without an additional cross-linker in between. On the coated HP layer, immunoglobulin G was then immobilized for specific capturing of Fbg.Results: We demonstrated a real-time quantitative detection of Fbg concentrations with limit of detection of ~10ng/mL. The fact that the HP layer could be removed by imidazole with acid also permitted us to demonstrate the regeneration of the outermost metal surface of the sensor head for the sensor reusability.Conclusion: The sensor detection limit was estimated to be ~10pM, which was believed to be sensitive enough for detecting Fbg during the clinical diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases, myocardial infarction, strokes, and Alzheimer’s diseases. Keywords: SPR, real-time assay, histidine-tagged peptide, protein sensing

We present a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) based multimode fiber sensor with non-golden bimetallic coating. Our detection scheme used, which is capable of measuring the combined effects of SPR-induced birefringence and intensity changes, supported the minimum resolvable refractive index (RI) of 5.8 x 10(-6)RIU with the operating RI range of 0.05 to be experimentally obtained at a single wavelength (632.8 nm) without non-spectroscopic techniques. The asymmetric profile of the thickness of the bimetal coating on the fiber core together with the inherent range of incidence angle for multimode propagation also contributed to the wide operating range. The SPR fiber device with the detection scheme demonstrated will be likely to be developed as a real-time label-free and highly sensitive diagnostic device of a wide operating range for biomedical and biochemical applications in a portable format. (C)2014 Optical Society of America