A Polarization Insensitive Metamaterial Absorber For The Application Of Solar Energy Harvesting In The Optical Regime

Abstract

Metamaterial absorbers have sparked a lot of interest due to their significant capacity to achieve nearly perfect absorption in nanostructures. Particularly Metamaterial absorbers can greatly increase the efficiency of solar energy by amplifying the solar electromagnetic wave. Since Solar energy is considered one of the cleanest renewable energy sources, the development of high-efficiency broadband solar absorption devices is essential. Metamaterial absorbers typically operate with a wide absorption band within the visible frequency range for solar energy collection. In this paper, we presented a new type of broadband solar energy absorber based on tungsten (W) to achieve broadband solar energy absorption. This tri-layer meta-absorber is designed by Finite Integration Technique (FIT) using CST microwave studio simulation software. The design shows that the nanostructure has a long absorption band from 400nm to 800nm with average absorption rates of 96.62% and near unity absorbance is achieved at around 604.91 nm. The proposed model has an absorption level of 94.58% on average. The designed MA shows nearly similar absorbance and reflectance in three modes such as transverse electromagnetic (TEM), transverse electric (TE), and transverse magnetic (TM). The suggested design's absorption efficiency data are also compared with previously published similar absorber designs to demonstrate the improvement of absorption in the proposed design. These results show significant possibilities to enrich integrated terahertz devices and many other practical applications like sensor and thermophotovoltaic cells.