Transmission surface plasmon resonance techniques and their potential biosensor applications

Transmission surface plasmon resonance (TSPR) is an unusual extraordinary optical transmission that is more transparent at certain wavelengths than expected by classical theory. The three main plasmonic structures that providing this phenomenon are nanohole arrays, diffraction gratings, and nanoslit arrays. This extraordinary optical transmission phenomenon is produced as a result of surface plasmon excitations. The shifting in TSPR responses upon changing of dielectric environment at the surface of a metallic film was observed. After TSPR was discovered from metallic nanohole arrays in 1998, the number of papers about this topic rapidly increased. In the 20 years since, TSPR has been utilized to improve the detection limits, sensitivity, selectivity, and dynamic range of biosensing devices, resulting in them having greater potential for commercialization. This review gives a broad overview of the TSPR phenomenon, the development of this technique, and the typical experimental setups used to acquire TSPR signals; it also describes how they are applied in the field of research into biosensors. •TSPR provides an extraordinary optical transmission at certain wavelengths.•TSPR substrates show a strong signal with highly sensitive to local dielectric condition change.•The TSPR signal could be recorded by conventional spectrometer and camera.•This technique can be further developed for practical biosensor applications.