Tamm-plasmon resonance based temperature sensor in a Ta2O5/SiO2 based distributed Bragg reflector

We demonstrate a Tamm-plasmon-polariton (TPP) based sensor for accurate determination of temperature. The sensing architecture is comprised of thin silver (Ag) film on a distributed-Bragg-reflector (DBR) structure made of periodically stratified multilayers of Ta2O5 and SiO2. TPP mode is excited using direct incidence of white-light-source at normal incidence as well as oblique incidence. The mode excitation is characterized by a sharp reflectivity minimum within the photonic bandgap (PBG) of DBR. It was observed that the depth of TPP resonance reduces uniformly as a function of temperature without affecting its sharpness. Defining temperature sensitivity in terms of change in reflectivity from the composite structure, a sensitivity of 7.8 × 10−4/°C is estimated for the sensing geometry. Also, the metallo-dielectric geometry supporting TPP modes is modeled using transfer-matrix-method for ascertaining the salient features of TPP modes which have a direct impact on sensing properties.