Ultrathin planar broadband absorber through effective medium design

Abstract

Ultrathin planar absorbers hold promise in solar energy systems because they can reduce the material, fabrication, and system cost. Here, we present a general strategy of effective medium design to realize ultrathin planar broadband absorbers. The absorber consists of two ultrathin absorbing dielectrics to design an effective absorbing medium, a transparent layer, and metallic substrate. Compared with previous studies, this strategy provides another dimension of freedom to enhance optical absorption; therefore, destructive interference can be realized over a broad spectrum. To demonstrate the power and simplicity of this strategy, we both experimentally and theoretically characterized an absorber with 5-nm-thick Ge, 10-nm-thick Ti, and 50-nm-thick SiO₂ films coated on an Ag substrate fabricated using simple deposition methods. Absorptivity higher than 80% was achieved in 15-nm-thick (1/50 of the center wavelength) Ge and Ti films from 400 nm to near 1 μm. As an application example, we experimentally demonstrated that the absorber exhibited a normal solar absorptivity of 0.8 with a normal emittance of 0.1 at 500 °C, thus demonstrating its potential in solar thermal systems. The effective medium design strategy is general and allows material versatility, suggesting possible applications in real-time optical manipulation using dynamic materials.