Grating-coupled surface plasmon resonance in conical mounting with polarization modulation

A grating-coupled surface plasmon resonance (GCSPR) technique based on polarization modulation in conical mounting is presented. A metallic grating is azimuthally rotated to support double-surface plasmon polariton excitation and exploit the consequent sensitivity enhancement. Corresponding to the resonance polar angle, a polarization scan of incident light is performed, and reflectivity data are collected before and after functionalization with a dodecanethiol self-assembled monolayer. The output signal exhibits a harmonic dependence on polarization, and the phase term is used as a parameter for sensing. This technique offers the possibility of designing extremely compact, fast, and cheap high-resolution plasmonic sensors based on GCSPR. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America