Narrowband Thermal Emission Realized through the Coupling of Cavity and Tamm Plasmon Resonances

April 3, 2020

Title

Narrowband Thermal Emission Realized through the Coupling of Cavity and Tamm Plasmon Resonances

Author

Zhiyu Wang, Zhiyu Wang, J. Kenji Clark, Ya-Lun Ho, Bertrand Vilquin, Hirofumi Daiguji, Jean-Jacques Delaunay

Year

2018

Journal

ACS Photonics

Abstract

A hybrid structure that supports the coupling of a cavity mode and a Tamm plasmon (TP) mode is demonstrated as a spectrally selective thermal emitter for the mid-infrared spectral range. Unlike conventional TP structures, the presented hybrid structure contains an optical cavity sandwiched between the distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) and the metallic mirror of a typical TP structure. In simulation, the TP-cavity hybrid structure exhibits a strong peak (absorptance = 0.993) in the absorption spectrum with a high quality factor (Q = 135), and this absorptance peak can exist over a wide range of resonance wavelengths by adjusting the cavity thickness. Moreover, the hybrid structure shows a small polarization dependence (for incident angles less than 30°, the resonance wavelength of TM and TE differ by less than 2 nm) and a shift of less than 20 nm in the absorptance peak wavelength for incident angles between 0° and 8°. The absorptance peak of the hybrid structure is stronger and sharper than that of a pure TP structure made from the same materials, which has a maximum absorptance of 0.898 and Q-factor of 28, and a Fabry–Perot cavity structure topped with a 5 nm Au layer, which has a maximum absorptance of 0.899 and Q-factor of 25. Upon heating, a strong and narrow bandwidth thermal emittance peak is observed with a maximum emittance value of 0.90 and a Q-factor of 88 at a wavelength of 4.731 μm. This easy-to-fabricate and high-performance infrared thermal emitter is ideal for applications where narrowband infrared light sources are required.

Instrument

VIR-300

Keywords

FTIR - Portable, plasmonic thermal emitter, mid-infrared, Tamm plasmon, optical cavity