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Broadband Absorption Based on Thin Refractory Titanium Nitride Patterned Film Metasurface
Dewang Huo1, Xinyan Ma1, Hang Su1
1Institute of Modern Optics, Department of Physics, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China.
Nanomaterials (Basel, Switzerland)
|April 30, 2021
Summary
A novel refractory titanium nitride (TiN) metasurface perfect absorber demonstrates near-perfect absorption across the visible spectrum. This thin-film device shows potential for solar energy harvesting and other applications.
Area of Science:
- Metasurface technology
- Optical engineering
- Materials science
Background:
- Metasurfaces offer tunable optical properties.
- Refractory materials are crucial for high-temperature applications.
- Broadband perfect absorbers are essential for energy harvesting.
Purpose of the Study:
- To propose a thin metasurface perfect absorber using refractory titanium nitride (TiN).
- To investigate the impact of size parameters on absorption.
- To achieve broadband, polarization-insensitive absorption.
Main Methods:
- Finite difference time domain (FDTD) method for simulation.
- Transfer matrix method for analysis.
- Fabrication of silica/TiN/silica stacks on a TiN substrate.
Main Results:
- Near-perfect absorption (95% average) from 400 to 2000 nm achieved.
- Broadband absorption enabled by dielectric layer cross-talk and nanodisk array resonances.
- Polarization-insensitivity at normal incidence and high absorbance (90%) at 50-degree oblique incidence.
Conclusions:
- The proposed TiN metasurface acts as a broadband perfect absorber.
- The design demonstrates robustness against varying incidence angles and polarization.
- The metasurface shows significant potential for solar energy harvesting and high-temperature optical applications.

