Application of white light-emitting diode to surface plasmon resonance sensors

In this paper, we show that white light-emitting diode (white LED) is a viable light source for replacing the commonly-used halogen lamp in spectral surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensors, We have constructed an experimental setup and results obtained from glycerin-water mixtures clearly demonstrate the systems capability in resolving the shift in the SPR dip caused by a change in the glycerin concentration. The use of white LED has the obvious benefits of direct modulation, low cost, long operation lifetime, robustness and small size. These are important pre-requisites for future commercialization of the SPR sensing technology. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.