Simulation of the improvement in the performance of a silver-based surface plasmon resonance biosensor using experimental results of cold plasma treatment of glass substrate

•The glass substrate was treated using CAP for improving the silver film adhesion.•The FESEM analysis was performed for observation of pinholes in the deposited film.•A biosensor based on SPR was simulated using COMSOL multiphysics.•The effect of pinholes on the sensitivity and accuracy of sensor was simulated.•RI measurements and linear bacteria density (cell/nm) variation was studied. In this study, the effect of observed pinholes in the Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) images on the performance of a silver-based surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensor is designed and analytically investigated by a finite element method using COMSOL multiphysics. The simulation results show that the sensitivity and figure of merit (FOM) enhancement of biosensor is attributed to the cold atmospheric-pressure plasma (CAP) treatment of glass substrate before deposition; leading to the omission of pinholes. This work is proposing a new way for SPR biosensors development using surface quality control of the deposited thin films with CAP treatment.