Abstract: Methods and systems for detecting biological or biochemical analytes generally comprising, a metal film having one or more surfaces comprising one or more submicron structures; a device for applying one or more analytes to at least a portion of the film surface to interact with said metal film; a light source for illuminating a surface of the metal film so that at least some of the light is adapted to be optically altered by the functionalized metal film; and an optical detection subsystem for collecting the optically altered light, wherein the altered light is indicative of surface plasmon resonance on the film, and detecting one or more properties of the analytes based on the collected light.