Plasmonic Signals Modified by Dielectric Layers and Exploited by Multivariate Analysis

We present a sensing device that combines plasmonic Au nanodiscs with dielectric layers. The sensor is operated in Kretschmann configuration and provides highly complex and sensitive reflectance curves as a result of hybridized plasmons and Fresnel reflections from the microfluidic device in which the plasmonic chip is embedded. Using multi-variate analysis to analyze multiple features of the reflectance curves in angular interrogation contributes significantly to the improvement of the sensing performance compared to a standard continuous Au thin film sensor chip. We improve sensitivity twofold and prediction error by almost 40%.