Omnidirectional and compact Tamm phonon-polaritons enhanced mid-infrared absorber

Narrow band mid-infrared (MIR) absorption is highly desired in thermal emitter and sensing applications. We theoretically demonstrate that the perfect absorption at infrared frequencies can be achieved and controlled around the surface phonon resonance frequency of silicon carbide (SiC). The photonic heterostructure is composed of a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR)/germanium (Ge) cavity/SiC on top of a Ge substrate. Full-wave simulation results illustrate that the Tamm phonon-polaritons electric field can locally concentrate between the Ge cavity and the SiC film, contributed to the improved light-phonon interactions with an enhancement of light absorption. The structure has planar geometry and does not require nano-patterning to achieve perfect absorption of both polarizations of the incident light in a wide range of incident angles. Their absorption lines are tunable via engineering of the photon band-structure of the dielectric photonic nanostructures to achieve reversal of the geometrical phase across the interface with the plasmonic absorber. (paper)