Broadband absorption enhancement of metal-dielectric structures in the optical range and their application in solar energy storage

Abstract

In this work, scattering properties of a metal-dielectric structure are carried out in the optical range. In the proposed structure design, the absorption coefficient reaches more than 80% and has an almost constant character in the entire visible spectrum. Based on the obtained simulation results, such structures can be utilized in the field of solar energy storage applications. A review of works in the field of plasmonic solar cells is given, where the efficiency is usually increased due to the confinement of incident radiation in the active region of photoelectric conversion using localized modes, which are concentrated at the surface of conducting nanoparticles. That is, such batteries are operated in narrow wavelength intervals. However, in this article, the assumed solar cell efficiency enhancement can be achieved by incorporating the entire optical range due to the proposed metamaterial structure.