Innovative chips based on palladium thin films deposited on plastic substrates have been tested in the Kretschmann surface plasmon resonance (SPR) configuration. The new chips combine the advantages of a plastic support that is interesting and commercially appealing and the physical properties of palladium, showing inverted surface plasmon resonance (ISPR). The detection of DNA chains has been selected as the target of the experiment, since it can be applied to several medical early diagnostic tools, such as different biomarkers of cancers or cystic fibrosis. The results are encouraging for the use of palladium in SPR-based sensors of interest for both the advancement of biodevices and the development of hydrogen sensors.

Attosecond science, photolithography, synchrotron, and free electron laser physics are new frontiers research and technological areas, where the properties of the beam play a fundamental role in the light-matter interaction. To fully control the properties of a propagating beam, knowledge and control of the efficiency and phase introduced by the optical components upon reflection is mandatory. In this letter, an original method based on photoemission measurements useful to determine the phase shift upon reflection of extreme ultraviolet multilayer mirrors working in a near Brewster's condition has been developed. The method has been also successfully applied to test two different innovative samples specifically designed and proposed for the FERMI@ELETTRA free electron laser beam transport system.