High-Resolution Temperature Sensor Based on Resonance Excitation of Tamm Plasmon Polaritons: Graphene Plasmon Polariton Hybrid Mode

Abstract

A theoretical demonstration of a high-quality-factor photonic crystal (PC) temperature sensor in the near-infrared frequency domain is presented. The sensor is based on coupling of Tamm plasmon polaritons (TPPs) existing at the graphene-PC interface and graphene plasmon polaritons (GPPs) existing at the graphene surface. This leads to the appearance of a TPP-GPP hybrid mode in one-dimensional ternary photonic crystals (1D TPC) truncated by a dielectric layer between graphene monolayers. For a transverse magnetic (TM) polarized wave, the excited TPP-GPP hybrid modes are localized within the range 180–270 THz or 1.11–1.67 µm. Excellent control over the resonance frequency is established via Kretschmann configuration excitation that covers the temperature range spanning from 1 K to 1500 K with high coupling efficiency and high quality factor (QF) of the order of 10 5 . It has been proved that the QF is strongly governed by temperature. The design parameters of the sensor are optimized so that temperature sensitivity of 5.75fm/K is achieved, with an excellent figure of merit of the order of 10-4K-1 and high detection accuracy of the order of 10 11 . The proposed sensor exhibits a high temperature detection limit or temperature resolution of 3.915 × 10 - 4K . A comparative analysis of the sensor parameters in the near infrared wavelength is provided, and the wavelengths are resolved at the femtometer length scale with very high QF. Graphical Abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.] © 2023, The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society.