A checkerboard selective absorber with excellent spectral selectivity
- Centre for Optical and Electromagnetic Research, State Key Laboratory of Modern Optical Instrumentation, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058 (China)
A selective absorber with excellent spectral selectivity is proposed and analyzed. The absorber is based on a germanium (Ge) checkerboard on top of a tantalum (Ta) substrate. At wavelengths shorter than the 1.2 μm cutoff, a very high absorption is achieved due to strong cavity resonances in the Ge nanosquares, and their interactions with adjacent nanocavities and the bottom Ta substrate. At longer wavelengths, absorption is greatly suppressed due to destructive interference between the transparent checkerboard layer and the highly reflective Ta substrate. To better describe the superior selectivity of our configuration, a new figure of merit (FOM) is introduced. We observe a FOM value of 0.88 compared to 0.69 for its planar counterpart. We also conduct a thermal analysis to verify the excellent selectivity of our absorber. A high temperature can be achieved and maintained, promising good potential for applications in solar thermophotovoltaic systems.
- OSTI ID:
- 22492902
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 118, Issue 18; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-8979
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Superlattice photonic crystal as broadband solar absorber for high temperature operation
High-efficiency solar thermophotovoltaic system using a nanostructure-based selective emitter