High performance mid infrared temperature sensor based on resonance excitation of hybrid Tamm surface states

Theoretical design of mid infrared temperature sensor based on the resonance excitation of hybrid Tamm surface state (HTSS) is presented. An excellent sensing performance is attained by the coupling of graphene plasmon polaritons and hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) phonon polaritons that forms hybrid polariton modes at the interface. In one dimensional ternary photonic crystal (1D TPC), terminated by hBN layer sandwiched between graphene monolayers, the coupling between Bloch surface waves and hybrid polariton modes leads to the formation of HTSS or Tamm plasmon-phonon modes. Employing Kretschmann configuration coupling mechanism, the excitation of the HTSSs at the truncated interface is manifested for transverse magnetic (TM) polarized wave. The structure supports excited HTSS between 7.14 mu m to 10.34 mu m that allows astounding control over the sensing ability by varying the number of unit cells and the resonant angles. The sensor has a high detection accuracy of 1010 at room temperature (300K). It is proved that for 50 unit cells and at 49 degrees angle, a high quality factor of 372176, detection limit of 5K and sensitivity of 0.20pm/K is attained with operating range between 280K to 380K. The operating range is widened from 300K to 900K by changing the resonant angle from 49 degrees to 53 degrees. Further, for 30 unit cells and at 53 degrees angle, the temperature sensing ability of the sensor extends from 100K to 900K with a sensitivity of 0.80pm/K and detection limit of 54.16K.