Dresden 2009 – scientific programme

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HL: Fachverband Halbleiterphysik

HL 51: Photonic crystals II

HL 51.5: Talk

Friday, March 27, 2009, 11:15–11:30, BEY 154

Hydrogensensor based on a metallic photonic crystal — •Cornelius Großmann, Todd P. Meyrath, and Harald Giessen — 4. Physics Institute, University of Stuttgart, Germany

Hydrogen has gained substantial amount of interest in recent years and it is considered to be a future carrier of energy. However, hydrogen can mix and ignite with air in a wide concentration range and surveillance is necessary.

Here, we present an optical hydrogen sensor based on a metallic photonic crystal. Our sample consists of a WO3 waveguide layer and metallic nanowires on top. The nanostructuring is done with interference lithography. Due to incorporation of atomic hydrogen into the crystal lattice structure of WO3, the optical properties of the waveguide-plasmon polariton resonance change in presence of hydrogen. The sharpness of the plasmonic resonance increases the accuracy of our sensor significantly in comparison to a bare WO3 layer.

We present the detection mechanism as well as temperature- and time-dependent measurement results. Advantages and disadvantages over the conventional hydrogen sensors are pointed out and the development towards an all-optical hydrogen sensor with full seperation of detection electronics and measurment optics will be shown as well.