Enhanced Broadband Plasmonic Absorbers with Tunable Light Management on Flexible Tapered Metasurface

Abstract

The growing attention in solar energy has motivated the development of highly efficient solar absorbers, and a metasurface absorber with broadband optical absorption is one of the main research interests. In this study, we developed an efficient metasurface absorber on a flexible film with a simple fabrication process. It consists of a polyimide nanocone substrate coated with gold and tungsten layers, exhibiting over 96% optical absorption in the visible range and a tunable absorption performance in the long wave range. From the analysis of experiment and simulation, the enhanced optical absorption is attributed to the synergistic effects of localized nanoparticle plasmon resonance and cavity plasmon resonance, and tunable light management comes from the strong infrared reflection of a gold layer and intrinsic absorption of variable tungsten layers. Meanwhile, the polarization-independent and omnidirectional optical absorption properties are demonstrated in the fabricated absorbers. Furthermore, this absorber shows the robustness against bending, maintaining the stable and excellent absorption performance after hundreds of bending tests. Our work offers a low-cost and straightforward tactic to design and fabricate flexible solar absorbers, and this metasurface absorber is a promising candidate for many exciting applications, such as emissivity control and flexible energy-related devices.

Nanoscale-Thick Silver Black Films Fabricated in He/Ar Inert Gas Conditions for Broadband Absorbers

“…Broadband light absorbers are highly desirable in various applications including photodetection, , photothermic conversion , and solar energy harvesting . There have been many reports on broadband light absorbers from the visible-to-IR wavelength range by various methods . For example, Zhou et al fabricated broadband plasmonic absorbers by a two-step anodization method and a physical vapor deposition system .…”

“…5 There have been many reports on broadband light absorbers from the visible-to-IR wavelength range by various methods. 6 For example, Zhou et al fabricated broadband plasmonic absorbers by a two-step anodization method and a physical vapor deposition system. 7 Søndergaard et al fabricated a broadband absorber with metal nanostructures by the focused-ion-beam (FIB) technique.…”

Ultracompact High‐Extinction‐Ratio Nonvolatile On‐Chip Switches Based on Structured Phase Change Materials

“…The diameters of the nanodisks are distributed gradationally as shown in Figure 1a to further improve the switch performance. Two benefits are brought forth, of which one is that the switch can absorb the input light better in the OFF state like those well-known tapered absorbers, [30][31][32] and the other is that the input light can pass through the nanodisk region with smaller attenuation in the ON state due to better impedance matching. At last, the gap distance between neighboring GST nanodisks is optimized.…”

Nanostructured Ge/ZnS Films for Multispectral Camouflage with Low Visibility and Low Thermal Emission

“…Over the past years, electromagnetic absorbers in the visible and IR regions have been extensively researched for solar–thermal conversion, − optical sensing, − detection, , and radiation cooling. − However, in the above planar nanostructures or nanopatterns, high electric conductivity components like metals are necessary as lossy materials to absorb visible or IR light, which would block microwave transmission. As a result, these structures cannot be amenable to the demand of being compatible with microwave camouflage.…”