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Perfect selective metamaterial solar absorbers

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Abstract

In this work, we numerically investigate the radiative properties of metamaterial nanostructures made of two-dimensional tungsten gratings on a thin dielectric spacer and an opaque tungsten film from UV to mid-infrared region as potential selective solar absorbers. The metamaterial absorber with single-sized tungsten patches exhibits high absorptance in the visible and near-infrared region due to several mechanisms such as surface plasmon polaritons, magnetic polaritons, and intrinsic bandgap absorption of tungsten. Geometric effects on the resonance wavelengths and the absorptance spectra are studied, and the physical mechanisms are elucidated in detail. The absorptance could be further enhanced in a broader spectral range with double-sized metamaterial absorbers. The total solar absorptance of the optimized metamaterial absorbers at normal incidence could be more than 88%, while the total emittance is less than 3% at 100°C, resulting in total photon-to-heat conversion efficiency of 86% without any optical concentration. Moreover, the metamaterial solar absorbers exhibit quasi-diffuse behaviors as well as polarization independence. The results here will facilitate the design of novel highly efficient solar absorbers to enhance the performance of various solar energy conversion systems.

© 2013 Optical Society of America

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Figures (9)

Fig. 1
Fig. 1 (a) Schematic of proposed single-sized metamaterial solar absorbers made of 2D periodic tungsten gratings with period Λ, patch width w and grating height h, on a thin SiO2 spacer with thickness t and an opaque tungsten thin film. The electromagnetic wave is incident at a polar angle θ, polarization angle ψ, and azimuthal angle ϕ. The structure is assumed to be geometrically symmetric in the x and y directions, and ϕ is taken as 0° for simplicity. (b) Schematic of double-sized metamaterial solar absorbers with tungsten patches of different widths w1 and w2, and period Λ = 2 Λ Tungsten patches with the same size are arranged diagonally and each patch is centered in its quadrant.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2 Spectral absorptance of the single-sized metamaterial solar absorber at normal incidence as a function of (a) tungsten patch width w, (b) grating period Λ, (c) grating height h, and (d) spacer thickness t. The base values of the geometric parameters are Λ = 600 nm, w = 300 nm, and h = t = 60 nm. The broadband high absorption in the spectral region from 0.3 μm to 2 μm is due to several physical mechanisms including SPP, CMP, intrinsic loss of tungsten, and MP.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3 Contour plots of electromagnetic field distribution in the x-z cross-sectional view at the middle of the tungsten patches, when (a) MP is excited at λ = 1.75 μm and (b) CMP is excited at λ = 0.78 μm for the single-sized metamaterial absorber with Λ = 600 nm, w = 300 nm, h = 120 nm, and t = 60 nm. Two unit cells are shown and different layers are delineated. The contour represents the logarithmic values of magnitude square of normalized magnetic field to the incidence, while the arrows indicate the electric field vectors.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4 The resonance wavelengths of MP and CMP modes are summarized in (a−d) with varied geometric parameters. The solid curves are predicted geometry-dependent resonance wavelengths from the analytical LC model for the MP mode.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5 (a) Spectral normal absorptance in the spectral region from 0.4 μm to 4 μm for a double-sized metamaterial solar absorber with tungsten patch widths of w1 = 250 nm and w2 = 300 nm, in comparison with that of single-sized metamaterial solar absorbs with w1 or w2. Other geometric parameters are the same: Λ = 600 nm, h = 150 nm, and t = 60 nm. The inset depicts the arrangement of the tungsten patches for the double-sized absorbers. (b) Spectral normal emittance of single-sized and double-sized metamaterial solar absorbers in the longer wavelength region from 4 μm to 20 μm.
Fig. 6
Fig. 6 Electromagnetic field distributions inside the double-sized metamaterial solar absorber at (a) λ1 = 1.6 μm and (b) λ2 = 1.8 μm, which are MP resonance wavelengths of the single-sized metamaterial absorbers with w1 = 250 nm or w2 = 300 nm, respectively. The MPs could occur inside the double-sized metamaterial absorbers at both resonance wavelengths under the tungsten patches with different widths of w1 = 250 nm and w2 = 300 nm.
Fig. 7
Fig. 7 Spectral absorptance of the double-sized metamaterial solar absorber as a function of polar angle θ at several representative wavelengths of λ = 0.6 μm, 1.2 μm and 1.8 μm for (a) TE and (b) TM polarized waves.
Fig. 8
Fig. 8 Contour plot of the spectral absorptance of the double-sized metamaterial solar absorber as a function of wavelength λ and polarization angle ψ at normal incidence (θ = 0°). The metamaterial absorber shows polarization independence.
Fig. 9
Fig. 9 Comparison on the spectral normal absorptance between the double-sized metamaterial absorber and multi-sized ones with three or four different tungsten patch widths. The insets depict how to arrange the different patches such that they are diagonally symmetric. The patch width values are: w1 = 250 nm, w2 = 300 nm, w3 = 350 nm, and w4 = 400 nm.

Equations (5)

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Z total = L m + L k 1 ω 2 C g ( L m + L k ) 2 ω 2 C m +( L m + L k )
λ MP 2π c 0 ( L m + L k ) C m
α total, N = 0.3μm 4μm α λ,N I AM1.5 (λ)dλ 0.3μm 4μm I AM1.5 (λ)dλ
ε total,N = 0.3μm 20μm ε λ,N I BB (λ, T A )dλ 0.3μm 20μm I BB (λ, T A )dλ
η= α total,N G ε total,N (σ T A 4 σ T sky 4 ) G
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