Coupling of the Tamm Plasmon to the BODIPY Fluorophore in Photonic Crystals for Nonlinear Optical Applications

Abstract

Light confinement structures offer tantalizing applications in a wide variety of areas where light–matter interactions play a crucial role. Considering optical nonlinearity, light localization in nanoscale mode volumes may trigger nonlinear optical activity even at relatively low input optical powers. Here, we demonstrate the excitation of the Tamm plasmon mode of a metal–polymer photonic crystal hybrid structure, resonantly invoking absorptive nonlinear behavior of organic BODIPY dye incorporated in the spacer layer. Third-order nonlinear optical measurements are carried out using the z-scan technique with a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser delivering 7 ns pulses at 532 nm. While the bare sample exhibits negligible optical nonlinearity, the sample in the Tamm plasmon structure showed a large nonlinear absorption coefficient of 1.2 × 106 cm/GW at 0.27 GW/cm2 peak excitation intensity. Our results demonstrate a simple and efficient method to create a nonlinear nanophotonic platform valuable for applications in all-optical information processing.