Direct excitation of the Tamm plasmon-polaritons on a dielectric Bragg reflector coated with a metal film

Abstract Tamm plasmon-polariton is a surface state or surface wave formed at the boundary between a metal and a dielectric Bragg reflector. In order to directly excite the Tamm plasmon-polaritons with unit transmission, we design a structure of Bragg reflector coated with a metal film. Through the Bloch theorem of periodic structures and transfer matrix method, we deduce the existence conditions of the Tamm plasmon-polaritons. For a a finite structure, the Tamm plasmon-polaritons can be excited, which is dependent on the thickness of metal, the period number of the Bragg reflector, the incident direction and frequency. On proper conditions, a perfect transmission for the Tamm plasmon-polariton mode can be achieved without the use of attenuated total reflection prism coupling or diffraction grating.