Effect of aging on optical properties of bimetallic sensor chips

Bimetallic sliver/gold sensor chips are attractive since they combine the advantages of both silver and gold layers. Optical properties of the bimetallic sensor chips show significant aging effects. Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) curves were produced on an SPR device and the time dependence of aging on SPR curves was studied. The results show that resonance angle and full width at half maximum (FWHM) of response curves increase with the aging time after film deposition. The performance of the sensor chips in terms of intrinsic sensitivity (IS) degrades with aging time. The underlying mechanism of the aging effect is explained as the growth of a silver oxide layer between gold and silver during the aging process. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America