Abstract
Low-cost 1D plasmonic photonic structures supporting Tamm plasmon polaritons and cavity modes were employed for optical signal enhancement, modifying the commercially available quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM-D) sensor chip in a combinatorial spectroscopic ellipsometry and quartz microbalance method. The Tamm plasmon optical state and cavity mode (CM) for the modified mQCM-D sample obtained sensitivity of ellipsometric parameters to RIU of ΨTPP = 126.78 RIU−1 and ΔTPP = 325 RIU−1, and ΨCM = 264 RIU−1 and ΔCM = 645 RIU−1, respectively. This study shows that Tamm plasmon and cavity modes exhibit about 23 and 49 times better performance of ellipsometric parameters, respectively, for refractive index sensing than standard spectroscopic ellipsometry on a QCM-D sensor chip. It should be noted that for the optical biosensing signal readout, the sensitivity of Tamm plasmon polaritons and cavity modes are comparable with and higher than the standard QCM-D sensor chip. The different origin of Tamm plasmon polaritons (TPP) and cavity mode (CM) provides further advances and can determine whether the surface (TPP) or bulk process (CM) is dominating. The dispersion relation feature of TPP, namely the direct excitation without an additional coupler, allows the possibility to enhance the optical signal on the sensing surface. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study and application of the TPP and CM in the combinatorial SE-QCM-D method for the enhanced readout of ellipsometric parameters.
Highlights
In order to analyze details such as the optical response, the spectroscopic ellipsometry measurements were first conducted in ambient air to determine the optical dispersion of quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM-D) sensor chip modified with 1D photonic crystal (PC) made from ten bilayers of TiO2 /SiO2 and a thin (40 nm) gold layer on the top
In the Ψ ellipsometric parameter map, the dispersion branch starting at 550 nm corresponds to the Tamm plasmon polariton, while the lower periodic branches are attributed to the cavity mode generated in the 1D PC
The planar plasmonic photonic structures made from periodic dielectric layers and thin metal film were designed for improved performance of ellipsometric parameters Ψ (λ) and ∆ (λ) in the combinatorial spectroscopic ellipsometry and quartz microbalance method
Summary
The combination of different sensing methods on one platform has become a growing interest for advanced sensing technologies [1–3]. Optical sensors, a glass prism as a coupler is often used to achieve the conditions of total internal reflection (TIR) that are needed to excite the propagated SPP waves, which are transversal magnetic (TM)-polarized. The exploitation of this SPP phenomenon requires a semitransparent metal film (commonly gold or silver). Much attention has been given to structures with a thin metal layer covering the top of a 1D photonic crystal (PC) Another type of surface mode, the so-called Tamm plasmon polariton (TPP), appears at the boundary between the photonic crystal and the metal layer [17,18]. The increased sensitivity of the ellipsometric parameters Ψ (λ) and ∆ (λ) due to the excitation of Tamm plasmon polaritons and cavity modes were monitored, analyzed, and compared with that of a conventional SE combined with QCM-D
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