Tamm plasmon polariton in planar structures: A brief overview and applications

Tamm plasmon provides a new avenue in plasmonics of interface states in planar multilayer structures due to its strong light matter interaction. This article reviews the research and development in Tamm plasmon polariton excited at the interface of a metal and a distributed Bragg reflector. Tamm plasmon offers an easy planar solution compared to patterned surface plasmon devices with huge field enhancement at the interface and does not require of any phase matching method for its excitation. The ease of depositing multilayer thin film stacks, direct optical excitation, and high-Q modes make Tamm plasmons an attractive field of research with potential prac-tical applications. The basic properties of the Tamm plasmon modes including its dispersion, effect of different plasmon active metals, coupling with other resonant modes and their polarisation splitting, and tunability of Tamm plasmon coupled hybrid modes under externally applied stimuli have been discussed. The application of Tamm plasmon modes in lasers, hot electron photodetectors, perfect absorbers, thermal emitters, light emitting devices, and sensors have also been discussed in detail. This review covers all the major advancements in this field over the last fifteen years with special emphasis on the application part.