Plasmonic biosensors

The unique optical properties of plasmon resonant nanostructures enable exploration of nanoscale environments using relatively simple optical characterization techniques. For this reason, the field of plasmonics continues to garner the attention of the biosensing community. Biosensors based on propagating surface plasmon resonances (SPRs) in films are the most well-recognized plasmonic biosensors, but there is great potential for the new, developing technologies to surpass the robustness and popularity of film-based SPR sensing. This review surveys the current plasmonic biosensor landscape with emphasis on the basic operating principles of each plasmonic sensing technique and the practical considerations when developing a sensing platform with the various techniques. The 'gold standard' film SPR technique is reviewed briefly, but special emphasis is devoted to the up-and-coming localized surface plasmon resonance and plasmonically coupled sensor technology.