Highly efficient, perfect, large angular and ultrawideband solar energy absorber for UV to MIR range

Although different materials and designs have been tried in search of the ideal as well as ultra-wideband light absorber, achieving ultra-broadband and robust unpolarized light absorption over a wide angular range has proven to be a major issue. Light-field regulation capabilities provided by optical metamaterials are a potential new technique for perfect absorbers. It is our goal to design and demonstrate an ultra-wideband solar absorber for the ultraviolet to a mid-infrared region that has an absorptivity of TE/TM light of 96.2% on average. In the visible, NIR, and MIR bands of the solar spectrum, the absorbed energy is determined to be over 97.9%, above 96.1%, and over 95%, respectively under solar radiation according to the Air Mass Index 1.5 (AM1.5) spectrum investigation. In order to achieve this wideband absorption, the TiN material ground layer is followed by the SiO2 layer, and on top of that, a Cr layer with patterned Ti-based resonators of circular and rectangular multiple patterns. More applications in integrated optoelectronic devices could benefit from the ideal solar absorber's strong absorption, large angular responses, and scalable construction.

Automated summary

This study aims to design and demonstrate an ultra-wideband solar absorber with high absorptivity and wide angular range. The use of optical metamaterials technology has successfully achieved this goal and demonstrated excellent absorption performance in different spectral bands.