A surface plasmon resonance side active retro-reflecting sensor

A new surface plasmon resonance (SPR) optical sensor is presented. The sensor element is based upon a retro-reflector in which the side reflective elements are designed to support SPR. This design allows for multi-wavelength SPR excitation at a single discrete angle. Results are presented in which the sensor element is used as an optical dip-probe and where the sensor element is an integral part of both 96 and 384 microwell plates. The sensor element design has certain advantages over existing SPR sensor configurations: (i) simplified fabrication; (ii) minimized sample volume requirements, and (iii) application to high throughput SPR analysis.