Real-time biodetection using a smartphone-based dual-color surface plasmon resonance sensor

We proposed a compact and cost-effective red-green dual-color fiber optic surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor based on the smartphone. Inherent color selectivity of phone cameras was utilized for real-time monitoring of red and green color channels simultaneously, which can reduce the chance of false detection and improve the sensitivity. Because there are no external prisms, complex optical lenses, or diffraction grating, simple optical configuration is realized. It has a linear response in a refractive index range of 1.326 to 1.351 (R2  =  0.991) with a resolution of 2.3  ×  10  -  4  RIU. We apply it for immunoglobulin G (IgG) concentration measurement. Experimental results demonstrate that a linear SPR response was achieved for IgG concentrations varying from 0.02 to 0.30  mg  /  ml with good repeatability. It may find promising applications in the fields of public health and environment monitoring owing to its simple optics design and applicability in real-time, label-free biodetection.