Solar energy full-spectrum perfect absorption and efficient photo-thermal generation*

Abstract

Designing and manufacturing cost-effective absorbers that can cover the full-spectrum of solar irradiation is still critically important for solar harvesting. Utilizing control of the lightwave reflection and transmission, metamaterials realize high absorption over a relatively wide bandwidth. Here, a truncated circular cone metasurface (TCCM) composed of alternating multiple layers of titanium (Ti) and silicon dioxide (SiO2) is presented. Enabled by the synergetic of surface plasmon resonances and Fabry–Pérot resonances, the TCCM simultaneously achieves high absorptivity (exceed 90%), and absorption broadband covers almost the entire solar irradiation spectrum. In addition, the novel absorber exhibits great photo-thermal property. By exploiting the ultrahigh melting point of Ti and SiO2, high-efficiency solar irradiation absorption and heat release have been achieved at 700 °C when the solar concentration ratio is 500 (i.e., incident light intensity at 5 × 105 W/m2). It is worth noting that the photo-thermal efficiency is almost unchanged when the incident angle increases from 0° to 45°. The outstanding capacity for solar harvesting and light-to-heat reported in this paper suggests that TCCM has great potential in photothermal therapies, solar desalination, and radiative cooling, etc.

Actively Tunable THz Absorber for Switchable Operations Between Different Absorption Behaviors

“…4(b)). The result demonstrates that the ultra-narrow absorption peak is attributed to the hybrid coupling of the SLR [36], [37]and F-P resonance [38]- [40]. The SLR originates from the coupling of Rayleigh anomaly (RA) and other resonance mode.…”

Facets of optically and magnetically induced heating in ferromagnetically doped-NaYF4 particles

“…Some of these methods rely on macroscopic heat sources to kill the diseased tissue. Photothermal therapy using nano/ microparticles has been introduced as yet another technique to treat patients [6][7][8][9][10]. In this regard, photothermal therapy by employing upconverting particles (UCPs) has gained recent research interest since these particles themselves emerge as multi-modal probes to their environment [11,12].…”