High-sensitivity temperature detection via Tamm plasmon resonance in E7 liquid crystal deposited on one-dimensional photonic crystal

Abstract

Accurate temperature monitoring plays a critical role in many industrial applications, thereby fueling the demand for high-performance sensing technologies. Among the available approaches, optical sensing techniques have gained a significant attention due to their exceptional sensitivity to temperature variations. In this work, we propose a high-sensitivity temperature sensor based on Tamm plasmon (TP) resonance, realized within a one-dimensional photonic crystal (1D-PC) incorporating a thermally responsive liquid crystal (LC) layer. The proposed configuration follows the structure [prism/Ag/LC/(Ge/MgF 2 ) N /air], where the integration of the Ag layer with the 1D-PC (Ge/MgF 2 ) N forms a resonant cavity embedding the LC, that functions as the temperature-sensitive medium. The optical characteristics and key performance metrics including reflectance spectra, quality factor, sensitivity, and detection limit are systematically analyzed using the transfer matrix method (TMM). By optimizing critical design parameters such as layer thicknesses, incidence angle, and the number of photonic crystal bilayers (N), the sensor demonstrates an enhanced performance. The optimized structure achieves a temperature sensitivity of 5.3453 nm/°C over the temperature range of 15–50 °C, along with a low detection limit of 0.0224 °C. These results underscore the strong potential of the proposed sensor for high-precision optical temperature sensing in advanced photonic and optoelectronic applications. Schematic diagram of the proposed design with the configuration [prism/Ag/LC (E7)/(Ge/MgF 2 ) N /Air].The reflection spectra of the structure [prism/Ag/LC (E7)/(Ge/MgF 2 ) 3 /Air] at the angle of incidence , , , , and .