Exploiting zirconium nitride for an efficient heat-resistant absorber and emitter pair for solar thermophotovoltaic systems

Abstract

A perfect absorber in the visible-infrared regime maintaining its performance at elevated temperatures and under a harsh environment is needed for energy harvesting using solar-thermophotovoltaic (STPV) systems. A near-perfect metasurface absorber based on lossy refractory metal nitride, zirconium-nitride (ZrN), having a melting-point of 2,980°C, is presented. The numerically proposed design with metal-insulator-metal configuration exhibits an average of > 95% for 400-800 nm and 86% for 280-2200 nm. High absorption is attributed to magnetic resonance leading to free-space impedance matching. The subwavelength structure is polarization- and angle-insensitive and is highly tolerant to fabrication imperfections. An emitter is optimized for bandgap energy ranging from 0.7 eV-1.9 eV.