Wide-angle and broadband solar absorber made using highly efficient large-area fabrication strategy

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Optical Engineering
• Nanotechnology

Background:

• High-performance, cost-effective solar absorbers are essential for solar energy applications.
• Existing absorbers often face limitations in bandwidth, angular tolerance, or large-area fabrication.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and demonstrate a wide-angle and broadband solar absorber.
• To achieve high absorbance over a broad spectral range with excellent angular stability.
• To enable efficient, large-area fabrication for practical applications.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication using a composite process of colloidal lithography and magnetron sputtering.
• Design based on optical interference of multilayer thin films (Al-Cr-SiO2-Cr-SiO2).
• Utilizing light-trapping structures to excite magnetic resonance.

Main Results:

• Achieved average absorbance greater than 93% across the 300 nm to 2500 nm spectrum.
• Demonstrated significant angular tolerance, up to 60°.
• Successfully fabricated the absorber over a large area.

Conclusions:

• The proposed solar absorber exhibits high efficiency and broadband absorption.
• The demonstrated large-area fabrication capability is suitable for flexible solar collection devices.
• This technology holds promise for advanced solar energy harvesting applications.