This work investigates the use of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) as a high-refractive-index material for quarter-wave distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs) in photonic applications. In comparison to Si3N4, a-Si:H enables enhanced optical confinement, broader omnidirectional reflectance, and improved figures of merit, including higher Purcell and quality factors, while minimizing mirror complexity. To evaluate the practical impact of these advantages, a theoretical comparison is conducted between Fabry–Pérot cavities based on a-Si:H/SiO2 and Si3N4/SiO2 DBRs, examining resonance shifts as functions of cavity refractive index (1.0–3.0) and temperature (0–250 °C). The numerical results indicate that Si3N4/SiO2 planar Bragg cavities exhibit a low thermal shift of 0.01–0.03 nm/°C and moderate refractive index sensitivity of approximately 1–10 nm/RIU, confirming their high spectral stability. In contrast, a-Si:H/SiO2 mirrors exhibit higher thermal tunability (0.03–0.1 nm/°C) and increased refractive index sensitivity (10–30 nm/RIU), making them highly suitable for sensing and tunable photonic applications
