Surface Plasmon Resonance Biosensing

Biomedical Engineering

How It Works

Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) biosensors enable real-time, label-free quantification of biomolecular binding kinetics. P-polarized laser light undergoes total internal reflection inside a high-index prism, generating an exponentially decaying evanescent electromagnetic wave that couples to collective electron oscillations (plasmons) on a thin gold film. Analyte binding shifts the resonance angle.

Governing Equation
k_sp = (ω / c) · √((ε_m · ε_d) / (ε_m + ε_d)) = k₀ · n_prism · sin θ_SPR