Ultra-low-thickness, highly sensitive, and perfect-absorption THz refractive index and temperature sensors based on Tamm plasmon polaritons and Fabry-Perot resonators

Abstract

In this paper, an ultra-low thickness with high sensitivity and perfect absorption based on the excitation of Tamm plasmon polaritons and Fabry-Perot resonance for sensing applications is presented. The sensor comprises a graphene sheet, a spacer layer, an analyte region, and a one-dimensional periodic stack of the dielectric and metal layers. The sensor’s performance is evaluated using the transfer matrix method under different conditions, including the presence of the graphene sheet and metallic layers of the periodic stack, a change in the chemical potential of the graphene sheet, the thickness of the layers, as well as the incident polarization and angle. The simulation results show that the presence of the graphene sheet causes stimulation of Tamm plasmon polaritons, and the presence of metal layers simultaneously increases the absorption and decreases the thickness of the sensor. The sensitivity of the sensor is 0.9667 THz/RIU (equivalent to 305 μm/RIU) with an absorption peak of 99.99 %. The use of silicon as the analyte allows the proposed structure to perform as a temperature sensor in the range of 1 THz, which results in a temperature sensitivity of 0.055 THz/°C (equivalent to 16.45 nm/°C). The proposed sensor has the advantages of extremely thin thickness, perfect absorption, high sensitivity, tunability, and fabrication-friendly structure. The proposed sensor has high potential for use in various sensing applications.