Perfect absorber supported by optical Tamm states in plasmonic waveguide

Area of Science:

• Photonics
• Plasmonics
• Optical metamaterials

Background:

• Plasmonic metal-dielectric-metal (MDM) waveguides are key components in optical circuits.
• Achieving efficient light absorption is crucial for various photonic applications.
• Existing absorbers often face limitations in bandwidth or efficiency.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and investigate a novel absorber based on a 2D plasmonic MDM waveguide.
• To achieve near-perfect absorption across visual and near-infrared frequencies.
• To explore the potential applications of this absorber in all-optical integrated photonic circuits.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing a 2D plasmonic metal-dielectric-metal (MDM) waveguide structure.
• Incorporating a thin metallic layer and a dielectric photonic crystal in the waveguide core.
• Employing the transfer-matrix-method and finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method for analysis.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated a novel absorber with a maximum absorption of 0.991.
• Observed efficient light trapping due to the excitation of optical Tamm states.
• Confirmed minimal reflection and transmission across the target frequency range.

Conclusions:

• The proposed MDM waveguide absorber exhibits excellent performance in the visual and near-infrared spectrum.
• The excitation of optical Tamm states is effectively utilized for perfect light absorption.
• This novel absorber holds promise for integration into all-optical photonic circuits.