Excitation of Tamm plasmon polariton in ultrathin metals.

Zhang 张江伟, Jiangwei; Wang 王鹏森, Pengsen; Xie 谢茂彬, Maobin; Liu 刘清权, Qingquan; Ge 葛安萍, Anping; Guan 关学昱, Xueyu; Cui 崔恒毅, Hengyi; Jia 贾奇祥, Qixiang et al. · Sci Adv · 2025

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Tamm plasmon polariton (TPP) has unique localization and manipulability but cannot be excited with ultrathin metal films. We propose a strategy to realize generalized TPP (GTPP) in an ultrathin metal film as metainterface by introducing a low-loss dielectric Bragg reflector compensation layer, enabling effectively excitation of GTPP at its interface and achieving near-perfect absorption (~99.1%) at the resonant wavelength of 532 nanometers. This excitation has topological robustness, which fundamentally stems from its intrinsic tolerance to fabrication imperfections. A 14-channel narrowband absorbers chip based on GTPP has been fabricated. Compared to conventional structures without GTPP excitation, this device can lower the reverse saturable absorption threshold (~7.7 × 10<sup>-5</sup> nanojoules per square micrometer) and increase the fluorescence intensity above the residual laser intensity to enhance the extinction capability by two orders of magnitude. These findings provide both evidence for applications of micro-nano photonic devices in fields such as laser elimination and offer insights for other scenarios.