Temperature-dependent sensitivity of surface plasmon resonance sensors at the gold–water interface

Instrumental performance and sensitivity of surface plasmon polariton or resonance (SPR) sensors are crucially affected by ambient temperature fluctuations. Apart from temperature-induced opto-mechanical displacements, resonance conditions and associated output quantities vary, due to thermo-physical properties of optical components, like prism, semi-transparent metal-film and aqueous analyte solution. The variation of instrumental sensitivity S   as function of environmental temperature has been exploited experimentally in the temperature region 275K