A simple topology metamaterial blackbody for visible light

Because they can absorb nearly all of the light incident upon them, metamaterial-based blackbodies have many potential applications and have been studied widely. However, the topological structure of most designed metamaterial blackbodies so far is too complicated, at least involving a three-layer structure, to be fabricated and used, especially in the optical band. Here, we designed a simple topology metamaterial blackbody that contains only two layers. The top layer is a periodic arrangement of subwavelength silicon resonators, and the bottom one is a continuous Au film. The simulated results showed that the proposed structure produced a perfect absorption peak in the spectrum because of the Mie resonance of the silicon resonator, the localized surface plasmon resonance of the Au film, and the appropriate losses of the dielectric and metal materials. Furthermore, the impact of the geometrical and material parameters and the incident and polarization angles on the absorption spectrum were studied in depth. Finally, the physical mechanism underlying the blackbody was also studied. All of the results indicate that the designed metamaterial blackbody has many salient features and can be used in devices such as solar cells and bolometers. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.