Hybrid-Tamm-Plasmon-Polariton Based Self-Reference Temperature Sensor

We propose a hybrid Tamm-plasmon-polariton (TPP) mode based sensing scheme for accurate determination of temperature. The sensing architecture is comprised of dual “metal-distributed-Bragg-reflector (DBR)” based structure, which sandwiches a common layer acting as a temperature sensing medium. Hybrid-TPP modes formed as a consequence of individual TPP mode-coupling is characterized by two distinct sharp reflectivity minima within the photonic bandgap of DBR for normal incidence of broadband source. The symmetric hybrid mode exhibits discernible variation in terms of change in reflectivity and resonance wavelength as the temperature of the sensing layer alters. On the other hand, the antisymmetric mode remains unchanged that gives rise to self-referenced temperature sensing scheme. We obtained a spectral sensitivity of 50 pm/°C by optimally choosing the thickness of sensing layer. In addition, the sharp TPP resonances gives rise to improved detection accuracy of such a sensing configuration as compared to competing optical sensing technologies.