Solar energy harvesting with ultra-broadband metamaterial absorber

Abstract

In this study, a novel metamaterial absorber (MA) is designed and numerically demonstrated for solar energy harvesting. The structure is composed of three layers with different thicknesses. The interactions of three layers bring about the plasmonic resonances. Although the main operation frequency of the structure is chosen between 430 and 770 THz, which is the visible light regime, the proposed structure is also investigated in the ultra-violet (UV) region. One can see from the results that the proposed structure carries nearly perfect absorption capacity that is more than 91% at the whole visible light spectrum. The proposed structure even has the absorption capacity of 99% between 556 and 657 THz. In addition, the designed MA is also investigated in terms of its polarization and angle independency. Results show that the proposed structure is independent from the polarization and incident angles. Lastly, the designed structure can be considered to be used in solar energy applications as a harvester since it has an ultra-broadband absorption characteristic in visible light regime.