Surface Plasmon Resonace

http://www.uksaf.org/tech/spr.html

At an interface between two transparent media of different refractive index (glass and water), light coming from the side of higher refractive index is partly reflected and partly refracted. Above a certain critical angle of incidence, no light is refracted across the interface, and total internal reflection is observed. While incident light is totally reflected the electromagnetic field component penetrates a short (tens of nanometers) distance into a medium of a lower refractive index creating an exponentially detenuating evanescent wave. If the interface between the media is coated with a thin layer of metal (gold), and light is monochromatic and p-polarized, the intensity of the reflected light is reduced at a specific incident angle producing a sharp shadow (called surface plasmon resonance) due to the resonance energy transfer between evanescent wave and surface plasmons. The resonance conditions are influenced by the material adsorbed onto the thin metal film. Satisfactory linear relationship is found between resonance energy and mass concentration of biochemically relevant molecules such as proteins, sugars and DNA. The SPR signal which is expressed in resonance units is therefore a measure of mass concentration at the sensor chip surface. This means that the analyte and ligand association and dissociation can be observed and ultimately rate constants as well as equilibrium constants can be calculated.