DOI: 

Optoelektron. napìvprovìd. teh. 61, 17-30 (2026)


N.V. Kachur, V.P. Maslov. 


PROBLEM AND RESEARCH OF PROSPECTS OF INCREASING THE SERVICE LIFE AND WEAR RESISTANCE OF OPTOELECTRONIC SENSORS BASED ON THE PHYSICAL PHENOMENON OF SURFACE PLASMON RESONANCE (REVIEW) 

 

Optoelectronic sensors are widely used for measuring various physical quantities. Recently, significant attention has been devoted to sensors based on the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) phenomenon, which are highly sensitive to changes at the metal–dielectric interface and are employed for the analysis of liquid and gaseous substances in veterinary science, medicine, the food industry, and other fields.

The sensing element of such a sensor is a glass substrate coated with an adhesion layer and a sensing layer, which is typically made of gold. A major drawback of these promising sensors is that, when operating in liquid media, the sensitive gold nanolayer rapidly degrades. As a result, during long-term measurements, it becomes impossible to distinguish between the shift of the resonance angle minimum caused by changes in the analyte and that caused by degradation of the sensing layer. Therefore, these sensors are generally recommended for single-use applications.

At the same time, due to technological features (fabrication-related variations) in the deposition of the adhesion and sensing layers, such sensors are not perfectly identical. Consequently, replacing the sensor during an experiment introduces an additional measurement error. Moreover, such replacement requires time, during which the analyte itself may change. Thus, extending the operational lifetime of SPR sensors remains an important challenge.

This issue can be addressed by applying an additional protective layer. The aim of this work was to review existing additional coatings and methods for their deposition. Studies of natural river water quality conducted at the V. Lashkaryov Institute of Semiconductor Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine have, for the first time, demonstrated the possibility of creating SPR sensors with a record-long operational lifetime by applying an additional protective nanolayer of refractory oxides.

An important task for future research is the development of more cost-effective SPR sensors with silver or aluminum sensing layers protected by a nanolayer of refractory oxide.

 

Keywords: optoelectronic sensor, surface plasmon resonance sensor, operational lifetime, protective layer, refractory oxides.