Wear resistance of sensors based on surface plasmon resonance phenomenon

Abstract

Surface plasmon resonance is used for detecting and measuring various analytes characteristics by sensitive elements in sensor devices. At this, the problem of wear of the sensitive elements, contacting with gaseous and liquid environments whose characteristics are measured, arises during operation of sensor devices based on the surface plasmon resonance phenomenon. Wear of a surface gold nanolayer may be caused by various factors such as maintenance (cleaning before measurements), chemical reactions and abrasiveness of the environment. This problem becomes particularly significant when suspensions are measured. Solid particles in the suspensions have abrasive properties, which leads to modifications of the surface, reduction of the thickness and damage of the sensitive gold layer. As a result, more frequent replacements of sensitive elements are required significantly increasing the measurements cost. In this paper, influence of water suspensions of an optical polishing powder “Polarite” on the wear and the associated changes of the characteristics of a sensitive element is investigated. The need to find solutions of the problem of improving its wear resistance is highlighted.