Measurement of the air gap width between double-deck metal layers based on surface plasmon resonance

摘要

In this article, we verify that the traditional Kretschmann-Raether configuration of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) could be used to measure the air gap width between a gold-plated prism and another gold-plated glass slide. Due to the presence of double-deck metal layers, the Fabry-Perot resonance and surface plasmon tunnel-coupled effects could occur, which would cause the SPR angle to begin to shift at a larger air gap width of about 700 nm as compared to the case of single metal layer with an air gap width of about 350 nm. The simulated results reveal that the SPR angle begins monotonically to shift initially from 44.5° to 46° when the air gap width between double-deck metal layers decreases from 700 to 500 nm. The smallest air gap width is measured to be 539 nm, in which the SPR angle is 45.5°, by fitting the simulated curves to the experimental results.