Tungsten-Based Broadband Perfect Metamaterial Absorber in Visible to Near-Infrared Region for Solar Cell Applications

Abstract

Utilizing the solar radiations mainly concentrated in the optical region requires the perfect absorption of light by photovoltaic cells. In this paper, we have demonstrated a broadband perfect metamaterial absorber (PMA) based on tungsten (W) metal in the Visible to Near-Infrared region. The proposed metamaterial absorber has 98% average absorbance for 375-1100 nm wavelength region. A very large absorption bandwidth over 90% is obtained, and the maximum absorption is around the unity. Perfect absorption (>99%) was found between the 422 to 962 nm range of the proposed absorber. The polarization-insensitive-based proposed absorber tolerates a large incident for both transverse magnetic (TM) and transverse electric (TE) modes. Moreover, we have investigated the optimization of the geometric parameters of the unit cell to gain the best absorption results. The improved conversion efficiency under the solar radiation (A_AM1.5) has been investigated and also calculated the short circuit density. The proposed broadband PMA shows a promising expectance in various applications such as solar energy harvesting, solar cell, thermal imaging, photodetectors, and durable optoelectronics devices.