Surface plasmon resonance near-infrared spectroscopy.

Near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy is ill-suited to microanalysis because of its low absorptivity. We have developed a highly sensitive detection method for NIR spectroscopy based on absorption-sensitive surface plasmon resonance (SPR). The newly named SPR-NIR spectroscopy, which may open the way for NIR spectroscopy in microanalysis and surface science, is realized by an attachment of the Kretschmann configuration equipped with a mechanism for fine angular adjustment of incident light. The angular sweep of incident light enables us to make a tuning of a SPR peak for an absorption band of sample medium. From the dependences of wavelength, incident angle, and thickness of a gold film on the intensity of the SPR peak, it has been found that the absorbance can be enhanced by approximately 100 times compared with the absorbance obtained without the gold film under optimum conditions. This article reports the details of the experimental setup and the characteristics of absorption-sensitive SPR in the NIR region, together with some experimental results obtained by using it.