Investigation on feasibility of using surface plasmons resonance (SPR) sensor for ultrasonic detection: A novel optical detection of ultrasonic waves

Scientists and engineers have dreamed of a high resolution ultrasonic microscopic imaging, where the resolution of the ultrasound is required to be as high as optical resolution. In order to achieve this, of course, a very high frequency ultrasonic source in GHz regime is required as well as a highly sensitive ultrasonic camera in the same operating frequency range. In this talk, we will show some experimental results and discuss a feasibility and key issues of employing a standard Kretschmann based surface plasmons resonance (SPR) sensor system to perform high frequency ultrasonic imaging. At the end of the talk, we will discuss some ways to get around the issues.