Magneto-optical Kerr effect enhanced by surface plasmon resonance and its application on biological detection

We investigated the magneto-optical Kerr signals enhanced by surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and its application of the biomolecular detection. We measure the SPR curve obtained in multilayered metallic structures (t nmCo/45 nm Au) with varying cobalt thickness t. The thicker cobalt layer causes the weaker SPR. The magneto-optical signals also receive different magnitude of amplification due to measuring the hysteresis loop on different segments of the SPR curve via magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE). It also worth noticing that the magneto-optical signals from the reflectance maximum or reflectance minimum of SPR would be enhanced significantly, if the thickness of Co is within the range of 3 to 28 nm. By measuring and analyzing the magneto-optical signals from samples with different thicknesses of Co, we determined an optimal thickness of 8 nm where the signal amplification is the largest. In biomedical applications, this combined system is able to lead as a sensitive biomolecule sensing. We have verified the feasibility via fetal bovine serum (FBS) attached. © 2013 IEEE.