UV-VIS-NIR absorber to harvest energy for solar thermophotovoltaics

Ideal ultraviolet -visible -infrared (UV-VIS-NIR) absorbers with consistent performance at elevated temperatures and severe climate conditions are crucial to harvest energy for solar-thermophotovoltaic systems (STPVs). As solar energy promises to fulfill the power demands, its efficient utilization through high -performing light -absorbing devices is inevitable. The requirement of high -temperature durability makes conventional plasmonics an infeasible choice, and those highly thermostable refractory metals/their derivatives suitable ones. In this work, a lossy refractory plasmonic material i.e. Zirconium -Nitride -based subwavelength, ultra -broadband, wide-angle, polarization -insensitive, and free -space impedance -matched metasurface absorber in a three -level Pythagorean fractal structure is demonstrated. A comprehensive investigative study is conducted with the successful attainment of more than 90% absorption between similar to 500-900 nm with a peak of more than 98% at 655 nm. The mean absorption for wideband (200-2500 nm) is 86.01% and it is 91.37% for visible range. The proposed study provides an efficient choice of meta -absorbers for realizing highly efficient STPVs. (c) 2024 Optica Publishing Group under the terms of the Optica Open Access Publishing Agreement