ABSTRACT
This chapter describes plasmonic microscopy, which, through surface plasmons (SPs), offers high sensitivity and local electromagnetic field enhancement to satisfy the requirements of biomedical imaging in real time. The most conventional surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensing configuration is based on a prism-coupled attenuated total reflection method that employs four main detection approaches, namely angular interrogation, wavelength interrogation, intensity measurement, and phase measurement, to investigate any changes in an immobilized layer deposited on a metal surface. Fluorescence is widely used in biological immunoassays, optical devices, cell and tissue imaging, and medical diagnosis. In total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy, an evanescent field is used to excite and image fluorophores on or very near the liquid/solid interface. A suitable metallic thin film is needed to excite SPs for SPR phase and surface plasmon enhanced (SPE)-TIRF microscopy applications. TIRF microscopy induces an evanescent field from incident light with an incident angle greater than the critical angle to excite fluorescent molecules on a surface.
