Sensitivity enhancement of surface plasmon resonance biosensor with graphene sandwiched between two metal films

A new optical sensor based on the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is proposed and characterized. The sensor is composed by sandwiching the graphene sheets between two metal films in the Kretschmann configuration. The resonance angle and the sensitivity of proposed sensor are analyzed through the transfer matrix method. Moreover, the refractive index change of the analyte can be detected accurately by using the proposed sensor. It is observed that the sensitivity of the proposed bimetallic sensor configuration can be greatly enhanced than conventional single metal configuration by optimizing the thickness of the metals and the number of graphene layers. Finally, we believe that the proposed SPR configuration can further promote the biosensing application.