Metamaterial Solar Absorber Based on Multi-Resonance Coupling

  • YU Kun ,
  • YAN Naiya ,
  • ZOU Lie ,
  • LIU Haotuo ,
  • ZHANG Kaihua ,
  • WU Xiaohu
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  • 1. Henan Key Laboratory of Infrared Materials & Spectrum Measures and Applications, School of Physics, Henan Normal University, Xinxiang 453007, China
    2. College of Materials and Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059, China
    3. Shandong Institute of Advanced Technology, Ji’nan 250100, China

Online published: 2025-09-01

Supported by

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 62075058), Natural Science Foundation of Henan Province (No. 222300420011), and the Program for Innovative Research Team (in Science and Technology) in University of Henan Province (No. 23IRTSTHN013).

Copyright

Science Press, Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, CAS and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2025

Abstract

Solar absorbers hold the capacity to transmute absorbed solar radiation spectrum into thermal energy, offering considerable promise for diverse applications, e.g., electricity generation, heating, desalination, and energy storage, etc. The effective absorption of the solar radiation spectrum is critical for such applications. Hence, this paper introduces an absorber that is polarization-insensitive, broadband, and wide-angle. The absorber is designed by high-temperature-resistant materials for efficient solar energy collection, consisting of Cr and Fe square rings arrays, a SiO2 dielectric layer, and a Cr reflector. It exhibits excellent light-capturing capabilities, with an average absorption rate as high as 99.3% across the solar spectral range of 300–2400 nm. Moreover, the distributions of the magnetic and electric fields indicate that the distinctive nested square rings structure could effectively excite coupling resonance modes of surface plasmon resonances, cavity resonances, and magnetic resonances, which allow the proposed absorber to have broadband high absorption characteristics. Subsequently, the effects of different structures and geometrical parameters on the absorption performance are explored individually. Furthermore, the proposed solar absorber maintains high performance at large angles and is polarization-insensitive. We believe that this work not only deepens our understanding of coupling resonance modes but also suggests potential applications in the field of solar energy harvesting.

Cite this article

YU Kun , YAN Naiya , ZOU Lie , LIU Haotuo , ZHANG Kaihua , WU Xiaohu . Metamaterial Solar Absorber Based on Multi-Resonance Coupling[J]. Journal of Thermal Science, 2025 , 34(5) : 1867 -1878 . DOI: 10.1007/s11630-025-2187-1

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