A Comparative Study of Surface Plasmon and Tamm Plasmon Polaritons for Hydrogen Sensing

¹ INESC TEC – Institute of Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science, and Department of Physics, Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal
² Department of Engineering Physics, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
³ CINBIO – Center of Research in Nanomaterials and Biomedicine, Campus Universitario Lagoas, Universidad de Vigo, 36310, Vigo, Pontevedra, Espanha, and SERGAS-UVIGO – Galicia Health Service, 36312 Vigo, Pontevedra, Espanha
⁴ Department of Physics, School of Sciences and Technology, University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, 5001-801 Vila Real, Portugal

^* Corresponding author: miguel.a.almeida@inesctec.pt

Published online: 15 October 2024

Abstract

Due to the exponential increase in energy consumption and CO₂ emissions, new sustainable energy sources have emerged, and hydrogen (H₂) is one of them. Despite all the advantages, H₂ has high flammability, so constant monitoring is essential. Two optical techniques were numerically studied and compared with the goal of H₂ sensing: surface plasmon polaritons (SPP) and Tamm plasmon polaritons (TPP). The H₂-sensitive material used was palladium (Pd) in both techniques. The SPP structure was found to have more sensitivity to H₂ than TPP, 23 and 5nm/4vol% H₂, respectively. However, the latter has lower FWHM, with the minimum of the band showing reflectivity near 0%. In addition, TPP also uses more costeffective materials and can be interrogated at normal incidence with depolarized light. The potential of using each of these optical techniques for H₂ sensing was demonstrated.