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Metal island film-based structures for sensing using spectrophotometry and ellipsometry

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Abstract

Metal island films (MIF) are good candidates for sensors due to the strong sensitivity of the localised surface plasmon resonance to the environment refractive index. The strong near field enhancement in the vicinity of the island surface can be even higher if a metal layer (ML) is placed close to a MIF. Structures containing MIF with and without ML are prepared and sensitivities of spectrophotometric and ellipsometric features of the measurements are compared. It is shown that simple MIF is preferable for ellipsometry-based sensing and the one including ML in the case of spectrophotometric measurements.

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Acknowledgments

V. Janicki would like to thank European Science Foundation (ESF) for the activity entitled ’New Approaches to Biochemical Sensing with Plasmonic Nanobiophotonics (PLASMON-BIONANOSENSE) Exchange Grant 3853. J. Abriol acknowledges funding from the Spanish MICINN Project MAT2010-15138 and Generalitat de Catalunya (2009 SGR 770).

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Janicki, V., Sancho-Parramon, J., Bosch, S. et al. Metal island film-based structures for sensing using spectrophotometry and ellipsometry. Appl. Phys. A 115, 481–486 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-013-8056-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-013-8056-x

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