We have examined the noise sources for a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor system to facilitate optimization of SPR sensor instrumentation and data-processing methods for high-resolution SPR sensing. We found detector shot noise to be the dominant source of noise in the SPR sensor, and investigated the propagation of noise through a commonly used SPR sensor data-processing algorithm. Deriving an expression relating the detector noise level to the noise of the output data, we used measurements of the magnitude and distribution of both charge-coupled device and photodiode array detector noise to predict the noise levels observed in the sensor output. We used this method to optimize the parameters of the algorithm and introduced a modified algorithm with enhanced resistance to correlated light level noise. In addition, we evaluated the noise performance of alternative SPR sensor designs, including a sensor with no polarization optics and another with optics producing an inverted SPR absorption feature. Experimental SPR sensor data demonstrated good agreement with predicted noise levels.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.