Perfect metamaterial absorber for applications in sustainable and high-efficiency solar cells (original) (raw)
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Progress In Electromagnetics Research, 2014
We design, characterize, and analyze a new kind of metamaterial (MTM) absorber (MA) in different frequency regions for the solar cell applications. This MTM based structure is particularly presented in a range of the solar spectrum in order to utilize the solar energy effectively. The proposed MTM based solar cell provides perfect absorption for both infrared and visible frequency ranges and can be used for the realization of more efficient new solar cells. The structure is also tested in terms of the polarization angle independency. The suggested MA has a simple configuration which introduces flexibility to adjust its MTM properties to be used in solar cells and can easily be re-scaled for other frequency ranges. Our experimental results in microwave frequencies confirm the perfect absorption for the resonance frequency and agree with the simulation results. This means that the developed MA for solar cells will offer perfect absorption in infrared and even in visible frequencies.
Design and characterization of a dual-band perfect metamaterial absorber for solar cell applications
This paper proposes a metamaterial absorber design for solar energy harvesting using a simplified and symmetric structure. A unit cell of this design consists of three important layers namely, the bottom metallic layer, which is gold lossy, the intermediate layer: made of a lossy dielectric material that is gallium arsenide and patches which formed by a combination of gold and gallium arsenide. These three important layers are being carefully arranged at the top of a dielectric spacer. The geometric structure was being examined for its contribution towards absorption characteristics. The simulation results show outstanding dual-bands absorption (99.96% and 99.37%) in the visible frequency regime of electromagnetic wave. Due to the excellent symmetric nature of the proposed structure, its absorptance capacity exhibits polarization insensitivity for a wide range of incident angles for electromagnetic radiation.
Polarization angle insensitive dual-band perfect metamaterial absorber for solar cell applications
physica status solidi (c), 2015
A metamaterial absorber that effectively harvests solar energy is being proposed in this paper using a simple and high flexible structure. The proposed structure unit cell comprises of three vital layers. The ground metallic plane, an intermediate dielectric spacer while patches are wisely prepared on the top of a dielectric spacer. Geometrical parameters of the proposed metamaterial is studied in order to get insight on their impact for the absorption behaviour of the structure. The results from simulation provides two excellent absorption resonance (99.96% and 99.37%) in the visible spectrum range of electromagnetic wave. Due to the excellent symmetry of the proposed metamaterial design, its absorption coefficient is polarisation insensitive for a wide range of incident angles of electromagnetic radiations.
Polarisation insensitive tunable metamaterial perfect absorber for solar cells applications
Developing a perfect absorber based on metamaterials (MTMs) is a promising technique towards improving the efficiency of solar photovoltaic cells. In this study, a novel MTM-based perfect absorber (MPA) is proposed for solar cell applications, which exhibits an excellent single-band with high absorption rate of 99.7% in visible frequency regime (resonance frequency of 614.4 THz) with an outstanding absorption bandwidth of 15.5%. The proposed design presents a high symmetry flexibility which makes it easy to fabricate. Besides, the simulation results for the defined different incident angles and different polarisation (transverse electric and transverse magnetic) confirm the quality of the proposed design by showing how insensitive it is to both the defined incident angles (normal and oblique incident) and different polarisation angles of electromagnetic wave. The parametric study on dielectric spacer shows the tunability characteristic of an intended MPA structure. The proposed MPA design is a good candidate for fabrication of high-efficiency solar cell operating in a visible frequency range.
Since the discovery of metamaterial absorber to the present days, several designs were proposed which display single-, dual-, and multiple-bands absorption responses in almost all regions of solar spectrum. However, little work has been done for wide-band metamaterial absorber in the visible frequency range. Hence, a novel wide-band metamaterial perfect absorber (MPA) based on concentric Circular Ring Resonator (CRR) topology is proposed for the application to improve the absorbance of solar photovoltaic cells for the visible frequency region. The proposed design consists of three basic components as reso-nators, ground metal, and dielectric spacer. The geometrical parametric study is conducted in order to investigate the flexibility of the proposed MPA structure. The design flexibility also analyzed by the polarization angle insensitivity character, in which the proposed design provides the perfect absorption for different angles of the incident electromagnetic wave as well as for TE and TM polarized waves.
This paper suggests a metamaterial (MTM) absorber structure to be used for efficiency improved solar cell. The proposed MTM absorber consists of the topmost three concentric circular ring resonators, and a ground metal plane sandwiched to the top layer with a dielectric spacer. Numerical simulation and theoretical (interference theory) studies on the proposed design show a wideband with near-perfect ([99%) absorption response in the visible frequency region of the solar spectrum. Thermal characterization of the suggested design is also conducted in order to investigate its absorption capability at different temperatures. The proposed MTM absorber design is believed to be an outstanding candidate toward high-efficiency solar photovoltaic cell.
Efficiency Enhancement of Photovoltaic Solar Cells Using Metamaterials Absorbing Screen
The Journal of Engineering Research [TJER]
This paper proposes a novel technique for the efficiency enhancement of photovoltaic (PV) solar cells using metamaterials absorbing screens. This kind of engineered material comprises resonant metallic rings that are printed on a host low-loss dielectric substance and made periodic in a two-dimensional lattice. The absorbing screen has been carefully designed, and its retrieved effective constitutive parameters, effective electric permittivity ϵeff and effective magnetic permeability µeff, are integrated within a numerically modelled amorphous-Silicon-based PV solar cell structure as an impedance matching layer. Such arrangement will greatly achieve matching between the effective impedance of the composite solar cell structure and free-space impedance and will result in higher photons absorption through the metamaterials anti-reflective screen. Numerical full-wave electromagnetic simulations are carried out using CST Microwave Studio for the design of a metamaterial absorbing screen...
Exchanging Ohmic losses in metamaterial absorbers with useful optical absorption for photovoltaics
Using metamaterial absorbers, we have shown that metallic layers in the absorbers do not necessarily constitute undesired resistive heating problem for photovoltaics. Tailoring the geometric skin depth of metals and employing the natural bulk absorbance characteristics of the semiconductors in those absorbers can enable the exchange of undesired resistive losses with the useful optical absorbance in the active semiconductors. Thus, Ohmic loss dominated metamaterial absorbers can be converted into photovoltaic near-perfect absorbers with the advantage of harvesting the full potential of light management offered by the metamaterial absorbers. Based on experimental permittivity data for indium gallium nitride, we have shown that between 75%-95% absorbance can be achieved in the semiconductor layers of the converted metamaterial absorbers. Besides other metamaterial and plasmonic devices, our results may also apply to photodectors and other metal or semiconductor based optical devices where resistive losses and power consumption are important pertaining to the device performance.