Performance of Surface Plasmon Resonance Sensors Using Copper/Copper Oxide Films: Influence of Thicknesses and Optical Properties
Dominique Barchiesi,
Tasnim Gharbi,
Deniz Cakir,
Eric Anglaret,
Nicole Fréty,
Sameh Kessentini,
Ramzi Maâlej
Affiliations
Dominique Barchiesi
Research Unit on Automatic Mesh Generation and Advanced Methods (GAMMA3), University of Technology of Troyes, 12 rue Marie Curie, CS 42060, CEDEX, F-10004 Troyes, France
Tasnim Gharbi
Research Unit on Automatic Mesh Generation and Advanced Methods (GAMMA3), University of Technology of Troyes, 12 rue Marie Curie, CS 42060, CEDEX, F-10004 Troyes, France
Deniz Cakir
Laboratoire Charles Coulomb, University Montpellier, Bâtiment 2—CC069 Place Eugène Bataillon, 34095 Montpellier, France
Eric Anglaret
Laboratoire Charles Coulomb, University Montpellier, Bâtiment 2—CC069 Place Eugène Bataillon, 34095 Montpellier, France
Nicole Fréty
Institut Charles Gerhardt Montpellier ICGM, University Montpellier, CNRS, Bât 17 CC1700, Place Eugène Bataillon, 34095 Montpellier, France
Sameh Kessentini
Laboratory of Probability and Statistics, Faculty of Sciences of Sfax, University of Sfax, Sfax 3018, Tunisia
Ramzi Maâlej
Georesources Materials Environment and Global Changes Laboratory (GEOGLOB), Faculty of Sciences of Sfax, University of Sfax, Sfax 3018, Tunisia
Surface plasmon resonance sensors (SPR) using copper for sensitive parts are a competitive alternative to gold and silver. Copper oxide is a semiconductor and has a non-toxic nature. The unavoidable presence of copper oxide may be of interest as it is non-toxic, but it modifies the condition of resonance and the performance of the sensor. Therefore, the characterization of the optical properties of copper and copper oxide thin films is of interest. We propose a method to recover both the thicknesses and optical properties of copper and copper oxide from absorbance curves over the (0.9;3.5) eV range, and we use these results to numerically investigate the surface plasmon resonance of copper/copper oxide thin films. Samples of initial copper thicknesses 10, 30 and 50 nm, after nine successive oxidations, are systematically studied to simulate the signal of a Surface Plasmon Resonance setup. The results obtained from the resolution of the inverse problem of absorbance are used to discuss the performance of a copper-oxide sensor and, therefore, to evaluate the optimal thicknesses.
