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High-Efficiency Plasmonic Metamaterial Selective Emitter Based on an Optimized Spherical Core-Shell Nanostructure for Planar Solar Thermophotovoltaics

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Abstract

We propose a high-efficiency plasmonic metamaterial selective emitter based on a tungsten (W) spherical core-shell nanostructure for potential applications in planar solar thermophotovoltaics. This structure consists of silicon dioxide (SiO2)-coated W nanospheres periodically distributed on a W substrate and a thin W layer deposited on top. Using a new definition of spectral efficiency, numerical optimization is performed and its optical behaviors are systematically investigated. The numerical results show that our selective emitter has a high emissivity in the short wavelength range below the wavelength corresponding to the bandgap of the back photovoltaic cell and a low emissivity in the long wavelength range beyond it. Its spectral efficiency of 0.39 is much higher than those of other cases without the top W cover layer or the W nanospheres. Such excellent emission selectivity is attributed to the strong photonic interaction within the gaps between the adjacent core-shell nanospheres, the tightly confined optical fields in both the Ω-shaped W-SiO2-W nanocavities, and the bottom nanocavities formed by the W nanospheres and the W substrate. It is also very tolerant toward the thicknesses of the SiO2 layer and the top W cover layer.

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Acknowledgments

This work was partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 61307078, 91233208, and 91233119), the National High Technology Research and Development Program (863) of China (Nos. 2012AA030402 and 2013AA014401), the Zhejiang Provincial Key Project (No. 2011C11024), the Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, People’s Republic of China

    Lei Mo

  2. Centre for Optical and Electromagnetic Research, State Key Laboratory of Modern Optical Instrumentation, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, People’s Republic of China

    Lei Mo, Liu Yang, El Hang Lee & Sailing He

  3. Department of Electromagnetic Engineering, JORCEP, School of Electrical Engineering, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), S-100 44, Stockholm, Sweden

    Sailing He

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  1. Lei Mo
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  2. Liu Yang
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  4. Sailing He
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Correspondence to Liu Yang or Sailing He.

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Mo, L., Yang, L., Lee, E.H. et al. High-Efficiency Plasmonic Metamaterial Selective Emitter Based on an Optimized Spherical Core-Shell Nanostructure for Planar Solar Thermophotovoltaics. Plasmonics 10, 529–538 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11468-014-9837-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11468-014-9837-6

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