Design of a Broadband Perfect Solar Absorber Based on a Four-Layer Structure with a Cross-Shaped Resonator and Triangular Array

Abstract

As solar energy is a low-cost and clean energy source, there has been a great deal of interest in how to harvest it. To absorb solar energy efficiently, we designed a broadband metamaterial absorber based on the principle of Fabry–Pérot (FP) cavities and surface plasmon resonance (SPR). We propose a broadband perfect absorber consisting of a four-layer structure of silica–tungsten–silica–titanium (SiO2–W–SiO2–Ti) for the incident light wavelength range of 300–2500 nm. The structure achieves perfect absorption of incident light in the wavelength range of 351.8–2465.0 nm (absorption > 90%), with an average absorption of 96.3%. The advantage of our proposed structure is that it combines the characteristics of both high and broadband absorption, and has high overall absorption efficiency for solar radiation. It is also independent of polarization and insensitive to incident angle. We investigated how absorption was affected by different structures, materials, geometric parameters, and refractive indices for different dielectric materials, and we explored the reasons for high absorption. This structure is refractory and ultrathin, and it offers a good tradeoff between bandwidth and absorption. It therefore has premium application prospects and value.