Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 215 (2020) 110664

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Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells

journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/solmat

Perfect spectrally selective solar absorber with dielectric filled fishnet

tungsten grating for solar energy harvesting
Qiuqun Liang a, Qiu Yin b, Lei Chen b, Zhaolong Wang b, *, Xuandong Chen c
a
Department College of Science, Guilin University of Technology, Guilin, 541004, PR China
b
College of Mechanical and Vehicle Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, PR China
c
Guangxi Key Laboratory of New Energy and Building Energy Saving, Guilin University of Technology, Guilin, 541004, PR China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: A perfect spectrally selective solar absorber based on dielectric filled fishnet-shape tungsten grating has been
Solar energy proposed and numerically investigated. The designed structure achieves a total solar absorption efficiency higher
Perfect absorption than 94% and a total emittance less than 5% at 100 � C, resulting in a total photothermal conversion efficiency of
Surface plasmon resonances
93.4% irradiated by one sun. In addition, the proposed selective solar absorber exhibits nearly perfect absorption
Cavity resonance
Impedance match
in visible and near-infrared regions (400–1200 nm), and the underlying physical mechanisms for the excellent
performance including the impedance matching with surrounding medium, surface plasmon resonances, and
cavity resonances are elucidated in detail. Furthermore, effects of the proposed solar absorber geometric pa­
rameters on the absorption properties of it are also analyzed. Moreover, the solar absorber exhibits angular
independence up to 60� and polarization insensitivity. The proposed spectrally selective solar absorber promises
potentially valuable applications for thermophotovoltaic conversion, thermal emitters, solar energy harvesting,
and so on.

1. Introduction
Endless energy from continuous solar irradiation can be converted
into heat, electricity, as well as photochemical reactions. The total
amount of solar energy reaching the earth’s surface far exceeds global
energy needs now and in the future. Compared with natural gas, fossil
fuels coal, and petroleum, solar energy is one of abundant and renew­
able energy sources because of its inexhaustible, pollution- and noise-
free characteristics in the past centuries. The directly usage of solar
energy provides a feasible solution for alleviating the energy crisis and
reducing greenhouse gas pollution. Therefore, solar absorbers, which
efficiently convert sunlight into heat, have received extensive attentions
with intensive studies recently, due to their potential significant appli­
cations in many fields, such as solar cells, thermophotovoltaic (TPV)
devices, solar thermophotovoltaic systems (STPV), solar vapor/steam
generation and integrated optics related applications [1–6]. Among
them, one of the significant technologies for solar vapor/steam gener­
ation is to harvest solar energy by using a cost-effective perfect solar
absorber [5,6]. Specifically, STPV systems convert the incident solar
energy into thermal energy by using a wavelength selective solar
absorber, and then emits it as photons through a thermal transmitter,
thus effectively converting the solar energy into electrical energy [1–4].
It should be noted that the operating temperatures for most of TPV
conversion system applications are in the approximate range of
1300–1800 � C [7]. Therefore, materials that can withstand high tem­
peratures are crucial when absorbing and radiating photons for a TPV
system. However, the solar absorbers based on noble metals, such as
silver [Ag (~961 � C)], gold [Au (~1064 � C)], and copper [Cu (~1083
�
C)], are excellent candidates for absorbing visible light with short­
comings of low melting points and high cost, as well as manufacturing
challenges, which severely limit their applications in TPV conversion
systems heated by solar energy.
An effective method to solve the problems caused by noble metals
based solar absorbers is to design perfect selective absorbers by using
low-cost refractory materials that withstand high temperatures, such as
nickel [Ni (~1453 � C)], titanium [Ti (~1660 � C)], chromium [Cr
(~1857 � C)] and tungsten [W (~3400 � C)]. Moreover, the refractory
metals, such as tungsten, tend to exhibit relatively high emissivity in the
near-infrared region due to the interband transition [8,9]. Recently,
various structures based on tungsten have been proposed for solar en­
ergy harvesting due to the outstanding chemical and thermal stability,
as well as superior high melting point of tungsten [10–16]. Wang et al.

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: zhaolongwang@hnu.edu.cn (Z. Wang).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2020.110664
Received 22 February 2020; Received in revised form 31 May 2020; Accepted 12 June 2020
Available online 24 July 2020
0927-0248/© 2020 Published by Elsevier B.V.
Q. Liang et al.
[10] numerically investigated a solar absorber composed of a tungsten
film/dielectric spacer/two-dimensional (2D) tungsten grating. The re­
sults showed that more than 88% of total solar absorptance and less than
3% of total emittance at 100 � C had been achieved, and surface plasmon
polaritons (SPPs), magnetic polaritons (MPs), together with intrinsic
bandgap absorption of tungsten contributed to the perfect absorption
properties of it. Han et al. [13] numerically and experimentally studied a
selective solar absorber based on a 2D nanodisk tungsten array/di­
electric film/tungsten film structure, achieving an average measured
absorptance higher than 90% from 0.5 to 1.75 μm, and the underlying
physical mechanism was revealed by the analysis of energy dissipation.
Rana et al. [14] numerically analyzed tungsten-based ultrathin ab­
sorbers with square ring structure and cross-shape structure. The pro­
posed absorber could achieve nearly perfect absorption in the range of
400–800 nm due to the impedance matching with the surrounding
media. Ye et al. [15] designed a solar selective absorber consisting of a
tungsten sphere array/tungsten grating embedded dielectric layer/­
tungsten substrate, which had an absorptance higher than 95% in the
wavelength range of 300–1777 nm and a thermal emittance of 0.03% at
wavelengths longer than 6.15 μm. And the absorption mechanism was
attributed to the coupling effect of multi-plasmon resonance modes.
Zhang et al. [16] numerically analyzed a nearly perfect absorber
incorporating a one-dimensional multi-layer grating with tungsten,
realizing an average absorptance above 90% from 300 nm to 1200 nm
by trapping the light within the multi-layered structure with multiple
resonance modes.
Although continuous progress has been made, the performance of the
previously proposed solar absorbers has not reached the ideal one. It is
still challenging to design a polarization-independently, incident angle
insensitively selective solar absorber with high photothermal conversion
efficiency, achieving high absorptance within a wide wavelength range
from ultraviolet to near-infrared region and low emittance at the mid-to
far-infrared region. To improve the absorption properties of the device,
especially in the visible and near-infrared regions, the present study
proposes a novel design of broadband wavelength selective solar
absorber, specifically working at high temperature. The proposed solar
selective absorber is composed of three layers: a top dielectric film,
dielectric filled fishnet tungsten grating, and a bottom tungsten film. The
total solar absorption efficiency from ultraviolet to near-infrared re­
gions, and the total emittance in the mid-infrared region have also been
calculated. Moreover, the photothermal conversion efficiency has been
calculated to quantitatively evaluate the performance of the designed
solar absorber. The underlying mechanisms responsible for the absorp­
tance enhancement will be revealed in detail. Additionally, the
geometrical effects on the spectral absorption properties of the absorber
are further analyzed. Finally, oblique incidences of both TM and TE
polarized waves are also explored to demonstrate the polarization in­
dependence and large incident-angle insensitivity of the absorber.
2. Materials and methods
A schematic demonstration of the proposed selective solar absorber
is shown in Fig. 1. The proposed selective solar absorber is composed of
Fig. 1. Schematic of two by two array of the periodic structure. (a) 3D view. (b) 2D topography of two by two arrays of the proposed selective solar absorber.
2
Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells 215 (2020) 110664
a topmost thin dielectric film, a fishnet metal grating (filled with a
dielectric material), and a bottom metal thin film. Silicon dioxide (SiO2)
is chosen as the dielectric material, and tungsten is selected as the
metallic material, which has high melting point and good corrosion
resistance. It is worth to note that the proposed solar absorber could be
fabricated with electron beam lithography and vacuum coating equip­
ment [13,17,18]. The geometric parameters are the thickness of the
bottom tungsten thin film t0, the depth of the grating d, the thickness of
the upmost SiO2 film t, the width of the ridge of the metal grating w1, the
width of the nanocavity w2, and the period P. Three-dimensional
finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method [19,20] based on Max­
well’s equations is employed to calculate the radiative properties and
the electromagnetic field distribution of the proposed structure from UV
to mid-infrared region (i.e., 0.3–20 μm). The permittivity of tungsten
and SiO2 are taken from Palik’s book [21]. The temperature dependence
of optical constants is ignored in all calculations. The absorptance
[AðωÞ] of the whole structure can be calculated by:
AðωÞ ¼ 1 RðωÞ TðωÞ (1)
RðωÞ ¼ jS11 j2 (2)
TðωÞ ¼ jS21 j2 (3)
where RðωÞ and TðωÞ are the spectral reflectance and transmittance,
respectively. S11 and S21 denote the scattering matrix coefficients of
reflection and transmission for normal incident TM polarized light,
respectively. The thickness of bottom tungsten film is set to 200 nm (i.e.,
t0 ¼ 200 nm), which is much thicker than the penetration depth to
prevent the transmission of the incident light [i.e., TðωÞ ¼ jS21 j2 ¼ 0].
And thus, Eq. (1) reduces to:
AðωÞ ¼ 1 jS11 j2 (4)
In addition, the effective impedance ~zðωÞ can be obtained by
employing S-parameter retrieval algorithm [22–24]:
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ð1 þ S11 Þ2 S221
~zðωÞ ¼ (5)
ð1 S11 Þ2 S221
In general, the effective impedance ~zðωÞ is a complex value rewritten
as ~zðωÞ ¼ Reð~zÞ þ i⋅Imð~zÞ. Base on Eqs. (4) and (5), the absorptance AðωÞ
can also be express as [24]:
AðωÞ ¼
4Reð~zÞ
(6)
½1 þ Reð~zÞ�2 þ ½Imð~zÞ�2
Based on the effective medium theory, the middle metal grating fil­
led with dielectric material can be regarded as a homogenous medium
with effective anisotropic permittivity ε [25].
0 1
εk 0 0
@
ε ¼ 0 εk 0 A (7)
0 0 ε?
εk ¼ εm ⋅fm þ εd ⋅ð1 fm Þ (8)
Q. Liang et al. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells 215 (2020) 110664

!
εm ⋅εd and j E j is the magnitude of the electric field.
ε? ¼ (9)
εm ⋅fm þ εd ⋅ð1 fm Þ
3. Results and discussion
where εk and ε? are the longitudinal and transverse components,
respectively, while εm and εd represent the relative permittivity of metal 3.1. Selective perfect absorber for solar energy harvesting
and dielectric, respectively. fm is the volume filling ratio of a metal
grating. The optimum parameters of the proposed solar absorber are as fol­
To be an ideal spectral solar absorber, it should be angular- lows: t ¼ 60 nm, d ¼ 500 nm, w1 ¼ 60 nm, w2 ¼ 340 nm, and P ¼ 400 nm.
independent and polarization-insensitivity with perfect absorption The lateral filling ratio (f) is defined as the ratio of the width of the
over the whole solar radiation regime, and zero emittance in the mid- grating (w1) and the period (P) along either the x- or y-direction (i.e., f ¼
infrared thermal region (2.5–20 μm). The performance of the solar w1/P), and the optimum lateral filling ratio of tungsten is 0.15. Fig. 2
absorber can be characterized by its total solar absorption efficiency presents the absorption spectrum of the proposed selective solar
(αtotal ) and total thermal emittance (εtotal ). The total solar absorption absorber for normal incident transverse magnetic (TM) polarized wave
efficiency (αtotal ) of the proposed selective solar absorber at normal (magnetic field in y-direction). It can be seen from Fig. 2 (red line) that
incidence is given by Refs. [3,10,26]: the proposed selective solar absorber exhibits nearly 100% absorptance
R 4μm in the visible and near infrared regions (i.e., 0.4–1.2 μm). Since the
μm Aλ IAM1:5 ðλÞdλ geometric parameters (w1, w2, and P) of the proposed 2D periodic
αtotal ¼ 0:3
R 4μm (10)
I
0:3μm AM1:5
ðλÞdλ structure are the same in x and y directions, the designed structure is
four-fold rotational symmetry along the propagation axis (z-direction).
where Aλ is the spectral absorptance of the proposed selective solar Hence, the absorption spectra of the proposed selective solar absorber
absorber which can be obtained from Eq. (4). IAM1:5 ðλÞ is the incident for normal incident TM polarized wave and transverse electric (TE)
solar intensity in the US continent take from the global tilt AM 1.5 data polarized wave (electric field in y-direction) are the same.
[27]. Since the available data of AM 1.5 is in the ultraviolet, visible and According to Eq. (6), the real part of the effective impedance [Reð~zÞ]
near-infrared regions (0.3–4 μm), which includes total solar radiation on should be close to 1, while the imaginary part of the effective impedance
earth, the integration interval is limited from 0.3 to 4 μm in the present [Imð~zÞ] should near to zero for the sake of achieving perfect absorption.
study. In addition, the real and imaginary parts of effective impedance of the
Moreover, low mid-to far-infrared emittance is particularly impor­ proposed selective solar absorber are also calculated and illustrated in
tant for higher temperature applications. The total thermal emittance the inset of Fig. 2. It can be clearly observed from the inset of Fig. 2 that
(εtotal ) can be considered as a measurement of thermal energy loss via the the real part and the imaginary part of effective impedance of the pro­
thermal emission of the absorber itself and can be calculated by Refs. posed selective solar absorber are nearly 1 and 0 [i.e. Reðzeff Þ � 1 and
[10,26]: Imðzeff Þ � 0] in the visible and near-infrared regions (0.4–1.2 μm),
R 20μm respectively. The results indicate that the effective impedance ~zðωÞ of
IB ðλ; TÞελ dλ
εtotal ¼ R2:520μmμm (11) the designed structure perfectly matches with that of the surrounding
2:5μm B
I ðλ; TÞdλ medium (z0 ¼ 377 ​ Ω). Therefore, the nearly perfect absorption ach­
ieved in the visible and near infrared regions (i.e., 0.4–1.2 μm) comes
IB ðλ; TÞ ¼
2hc2
� hc � (12) from the impedance matching effect, which can also be explained by
5
λ eλkB T 1 intrinsic loss in the tungsten grating and the bottom tungsten film [14,
30].
where IB ðλ; TÞ is the blackbody radiation intensity given by Plank’s law. In addition, the middle metal grating filled with dielectric material
ελ is the spectral emittance at the same temperature. Since our proposed can be regarded as an “effective medium” producing an intermediate
structure is opaque, the emittance is equivalent to the absorptance (i.e., layer between the topmost SiO2 film and the bottom bulk tungsten
ελ ¼ Aλ ) in thermodynamic equilibrium with the environment according
to Kirchhoff’s law of thermal radiation [28]. λ is the wavelength of light,
h is the Planck’s constant, c is the velocity of light in vacuum, kB is the
Boltzmann constant and T is the absolute temperature.
Assuming being irradiated by one sun (no concentrated optical sys­
tem included), and ignoring the convection and conduction heat losses,
the photothermal conversion efficiency (η) of the solar absorber can be
expressed as follows [3,10,26]:
� �
4 4
σ Tabs Tsky
η ¼ αtotal εtotal (13)
CIs

where σ ¼ 5:67 � 10 8 W=ðm2 ⋅K4 Þ is the Stefan-Boltzmann constant. C

is the solar concentration ratio, i.e., the ratio of observed intensity to the
solar intensity. Is is the solar flux intensity at AM 1.5, generally taken as
1 kW/m2 (1 sun) [3,27]. Tabs and Tsky are the temperature of the solar
absorber and the ambient temperature, respectively.
The energy loss due to the absorption for nonmagnetic materials can
be given by [29].
Fig. 2. The numerical simulated absorption spectrum of the proposed selective
1 ! solar absorber for normal incidence. The inset is the calculated real and
Pabs ¼ ε0 ωε00 j E j2 (14)
2 imaginary parts of the effective impedance for the proposed selective solar
absorber. The corresponding geometric parameters of the selective solar
where ω is the angular frequency of the input wave, ε0 is the permittivity absorber are t0 ¼ 200 nm, d ¼ 500 nm, t ¼ 60 nm, w1 ¼ 60 nm, w2 ¼ 340 nm,
in vacuum, ε00 is the imaginary part of the permittivity of the materials, and P ¼ 400 nm, respectively.

3
Q. Liang et al.
resulting in impedance matching. And the effective medium absorber is
composed of W film/effective medium/SiO2 film. Based on Eqs. (7)–(9),
the absorptance of the effective medium absorber is calculated and
shown in Fig. 2 (black dotted line). It is obvious from Fig. 2 that the
absorption spectrum of the effective absorber (black dotted line)
matches well with the absorption spectrum of the proposed absorber
exhibiting nearly perfect absorption in the visible and near infrared
regions, indicating that the absorption properties of the proposed
absorber can be revealed by effective medium theory.
The normalized solar spectrum AM 1.5 and the spectral absorptance
of the proposed absorber in the ultra-visible and near-infrared regions
(0.3–4 μm) are depicted in Fig. 3a. It can be seen from Fig. 3a that the
proposed structure has an absorptance higher than 0.9 in the wave­
length range of 0.3–1.65 μm. According to Eq. (10), the total solar ab­
sorption efficiency (αtotal ) at normal incidence for the proposed selective
solar absorber is 94.6%. Fig. 3b illustrates the normalized thermal ra­
diation spectrum of the blackbody and the proposed selective solar
absorber at 100 � C in the mid-infrared region (2.5–20 μm). According to
Eqs. (11) and (12), the total emittance (εtotal ) of the designed structure in
normal direction is 4.6% at T ¼ 100 � C. Assuming that C ¼ 1, Tabs ¼ 100
�
C, and Tshy ¼ 26 � C, the photothermal conversion efficiency (η) of the
proposed absorber calculated by using Eq. (13) is 93.4%. In comparison,
the present absorber shows much better performance than those previ­
ously reported tungsten-based absorbers [10–16]. For instance, the solar
absorber composed of a tungsten film, a dielectric spacer and a 2D
tungsten grating only achieves a total solar absorptance around 88%
with a total emittance less than 3%, resulting in a total photothermal
conversion efficiency of 86% [10]. Besides, the average measured
absorptance of a selective solar absorber based on a 2D nanodisk tung­
sten array/dielectric film/tungsten film structure is around 90% from
400 to 1200 nm [13], which is also lower than that of the present
absorber.
3.2. Underlying mechanisms of the perfect selective broadband absorption
In order to further reveal the underlying physical mechanisms of how
electromagnetic energy is dissipated in the designed absorber, the
electric field (|E|2), magnetic field (|H|2) distributions as well as
Poynting vector distribution of TM-polarized light with a normal inci­
dence at various resonant wavelengths (i.e., 500 nm, 700 nm, 900 nm,
and 1100 nm) in the x-z plane and y-z plane are simulated and illustrated
in Fig. 4.
In the x-z plane, the strongest electric field is localized along the
sidewalls of the fishnet grating, especially at the corners of the sidewalls
of the fishnet grating for wavelengths of 500 nm and 700 nm, as is
depicted in Fig. 4a. For 900 nm and 1100 nm wavelengths, the strongest
electric field is mainly concentrated at the corners of the sidewalls of the
fishnet grating, as is shown in Fig. 4a. The strong enhanced electric field
Fig. 3. Absorption and emission properties of the proposed absorber. (a) Solar spectral irradiance (AM 1.5, global tilt), and absorption spectrum of proposed selective
solar absorber in the ultra-visible and near-infrared regions (0.3–4 μm). (b) The normalized thermal radiation spectrum of blackbody and the proposed selective solar
absorber at 100 � C.
4
Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells 215 (2020) 110664
localized at the corners of the sidewalls of the fishnet grating is a strong
piece of evidence for the excitation of SPPs, which occurs at the interface
between a negative and a positive real dielectric constant materials (i.e.,
tungsten and SiO2). The dispersion relation of surface plasmons can be
expressed as [11,33].
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
kspp ¼ k0 εm εd =ðεm þ εd Þ (15)
where ksp is the surface plasmon wavevector, k0 is the free space
wavevector, εm and εd represent the permittivity of metal and dielectric,
respectively. The 2D periodic grating structure plays a crucial role in the
excitation of SPPs, since it provides additional momentum for phase
matching between the incident light and the SPPs. Besides, both TM and
TE waves can excite SPPs in 2D periodic grating structure, and the SPPs
propagate along either the x or y direction. For a 2D grating, the SPP
dispersion relation becomes [11,33].
� �
kspp ¼ kx þ 2πm Px þ ky þ 2πm Py
m ¼ �1; �2:::; n ¼ �1; �2::: (16)
where kx and ky represents the x- and y-components of an incident plane
wave, Px and Py are the grating periods in x- and y-directions, (m, n)
denotes the diffraction order.
In the designed absorber, the SPP is excited along the tungsten-SiO2
interface for wavelength longer than 950 nm where the real part of
dielectric constant of tungsten is negative. And the large imaginary part
of the dielectric constant of tungsten makes a big difference to the high
absorptance of the proposed structure in the same wavelength region. In
addition, the excited surface plasmons in the deep gratings will be
coupled with vertical standing wave in the grooves, leading to a strong
trapping of the incident light. As a result, the electromagnetic energy is
mainly dissipated in the fishnet tungsten grating, attributing to the high
absorptance of the proposed structure.
In comparison, the enhanced electric field is mostly concentrated
within the nanocavity formed by the sidewalls of the fishnet gratings in
the y-z plane, as is illustrated in Fig. 4b. The electric field enhancement
within nanocavities is caused by the interference effect. The enhanced
electric field concentrated within the nanocavities indicates the excita­
tion of the cavity resonances (CRs) inside the dielectric filled nano­
cavities [34,35]. The incident energy is absorbed via multiple reflections
from the fishnet grating ridges surrounding the nanocavities, resulting in
the strong broadband absorption in the visible and near-infrared regions
[30,31]. For the incident wavelength of 500 nm, the greatest enhanced
electric field appears at the center of the nanocavities at about z ¼ 450
nm, 270 nm, and 80 nm. While the greatest enhanced electric field is
confined in the center of the nanocavities at about z ¼ 430 nm and 140
nm for the incident wavelength of 700 nm. When the incident wave­
length increases to 900 nm and 1100 nm, the enhanced electric fields
extend to the topmost dielectric spacer, leading to a much stronger
Q. Liang et al. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells 215 (2020) 110664

Fig. 4. Calculated distributions of the normalized electric field (|E|2) and magnetic field (|H|2) in the x-z plane and y-z plane at wavelength of 500 nm, 700 nm, 900
nm, and 1100 nm, respectively. (a) Electric field in x-z plane. (b) Electric field in y-z plane. (c) Magnetic field in x-z plane. (d) Magnetic field in y-z plane.

5
Q. Liang et al. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells 215 (2020) 110664

coupling effect. of 500 nm and 700 nm, strong confinements of the magnetic field appear
CRs can be excited for both TM polarized light and TE polarized light. around the grating ridges and along the top of the tungsten grating in the
The resonance wavelength of cavity resonance mode in the plane x-z plane, while magnetic field is concentrated within the nanocavities
perpendicular to the vertical (z) direction can be predicted by Refs. [34, and along the top of the tungsten grating in the y-z plane. For wave­
35]: lengths of 900 nm and 1100 nm, the enhanced magnetic field is mainly
pffiffi located along the top of the sidewalls of the tungsten grating and the top
2 ε
λcav ¼ s�ffiffiffiffiffiffiffi�
ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi�
ffiffiffiffiffiffiffi�
ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi�
ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi�
ffiffiffiffiffi (17) of the nanocavities in the x-z plane, while it is concentrated at the cor­
ners of the grating ridges in the y-z plane. This phenomenon allows the
2 2 2
l m n
þ þ
Lx Ly 2Lz
slots modes existing within the nanocavities to couple with each other,
resulting in the supported surface waves [36–38]. These field patterns
where ε is the permittivity of filling material in cavities (here is SiO2). l also indicate the excitation of CRs and SPPs which results in the high
and m are non-negative integers (l, m ¼ 0, 1, 2, 3, …), and n is zero or broadband absorption in the visible and near-infrared regions.
odd integer (n ¼ 0, 1, 3, 5, …). Here, Lx and Ly are the width of the cavity To quantitatively evaluate the energy absorbed by different parts of
i.e. Lx ¼ Ly ¼ w2, and Lz represents the depth of the cavity, i.e., Lz ¼ d þ t. the proposed absorber, the energy dissipation within different parts of
A deeper cavity can support more waveguide modes when compared the designed absorber at normal incidence is calculated according to Eq.
with the shallow cavity. The cavity depth of the proposed absorber is (14) to indicate where the absorption arises from, which is demonstrated
560 nm. According to Eq. (17), the maximum wavelength (i.e., cutoff in Fig. 5a. It can be seen from Fig. 5a that the energy dissipation within
wavelength λc ) is 1020 nm, which corresponds to (l, m,n) ¼ (0, 1, 0) or the topmost SiO2 film is nearly zero due to the close-to-zero imaginary
(1, 0, 0) mode. The incident light couples with the CR modes when the part of the SiO2 permittivity in the whole wavelength range investi­
wavelength of the incident light is less than the cutoff wavelength of the gated. In addition, the dielectric filled fishnet tungsten grating con­
cavity. The resonance wavelengths of different CR modes supported in tributes more than 90% of the total absorption in the considered
the proposed absorber are calculated and shown in Table 1. CRs wavelength range, indicating that the fishnet tungsten grating is critical
generate standing waves confined within the cavities and prolong the for achieving strong absorptance over the entire spectrum. Note that the
interaction time with the metallic grating sidewalls, resulting in the imaginary part ε00 of tungsten is quite large in the visible and near-
trapping of incident light and the ohmic losses within tungsten. And infrared regions. And thus, the dissipation of the electromagnetic en­
thus, the incident light is absorbed via multiple reflections among the ergy in the dielectric filled fishnet tungsten grating is mainly owing to
grating ridges surrounding the nanocavities. Therefore, the incident the high intrinsic loss (ohmic loss) of tungsten. Besides, the absorptance
energy absorbed by the proposed absorber at wavelength smaller than of the bottom tungsten film is less than 7% (Fig. 5a), which indicates that
1050 nm is mainly due to the excitation of CRs. For wavelength longer the bottom tungsten film acts as a mirror to prevent light transmitting
than 950 nm, the excitation of SPPs between tungsten and SiO2 begins to the whole structure. The dissipated energy in the dielectric filled fishnet
dominate and contribute to the high absorption property of the proposed tungsten grating can be divided into three equal parts in z-direction, as is
absorber. presented in Fig. 5b. It is observed from the plots of Fig. 5b that the first,
Meanwhile, the Poynting vectors (S) is also depicted in Figs. 4a and b second and third parts of the dielectric filled fishnet W grating comprise
by black arrows. In the x-z plane, the incident energy propagates 47%~67%, 18%~31%, and 5%~18% of the total energy dissipated in
downwards along z direction in the nanocavities, and then bends to the the dielectric filled fishnet W grating in the wavelength region of 0.4–1.2
sidewalls of the fishnet grating, and finally being dissipated within the μm, respectively.
tungsten grating by the Ohmic losses of tungsten. In the y-z plane, most
of the incident light is firstly trapped within these nanocavities, where 3.3. Geometric effects on spectral absorption performance at normal
the electric field is concentrated. And then, the concentrated light incidence
penetrates into the sidewalls of the fishnet grating, and finally absorbed
by the tungsten grating sidewalls by the Ohmic losses of tungsten. This In order to get the optimized geometric parameters of the absorber
could be attributed to the funneling effect with narrow slots much and achieve the highest absorptance of it in the visible and near-infrared
smaller than the incident wavelength which plays a vital role in the regions, we investigate the geometric effects on the spectral absorptance
absorptive behavior of the absorber [36,37]. of the absorber. The thickness of the topmost dielectric film (t), the metal
Moreover, as displayed in Figs. 4c and d respectively for wavelengths grating depth (d), the lateral filling ratio (f) and the period (P) are
considered staring from a set of base geometric parameters of t ¼ 60 nm,
d ¼ 500 nm, w1 ¼ 60 nm, w2 ¼ 340 nm, f ¼ 0.15, and P ¼ 400 nm, and
Table 1 these parameters are set as constant unless if otherwise indicated.
The calculated resonance wavelengths of cavity reso­
nance modes. 3.3.1. The effect of the thickness of topmost SiO2 film
λcav (l, m, n) The sensitivity of absorptance to the thickness of the topmost
dielectric layer of the designed absorber is analyzed first. The spectral
1020 nm (0, 1, 0) or (1, 0, 0)
976 nm (0, 1, 1) or (1, 0, 1) absorptance for the simple fishnet-structure absorber (i.e., W film/
721 nm (1, 1, 0) fishnet W grating), the dielectric filled fishnet-structure absorber [i.e., W
754 nm (0, 1, 3) or (1, 0, 3) film/fishnet W grating (filled with SiO2)] and the proposed absorber [i.
705 nm (1, 1, 1) e., W film/fishnet W grating (filled with SiO2)/SiO2 film] is investigated
606 nm (1, 1, 3)
561 nm (0, 1, 5) or (1, 0, 5)
and depicted in Fig. 6a. Here the simple fishnet-structure and the
510 nm (0, 2, 0) or (2, 0, 0) dielectric filled fishnet-structure have the same parameters (h, t, w1, w2,
504 nm (0, 2, 1) or (2, 0, 1) and P) with the proposed absorber. In Fig. 6a, there is only two ab­
491 nm (1, 1, 5) sorption peaks (512 nm and 677 nm) in the visible to near-infrared re­
464 nm (0, 2, 3) or (2, 0, 3)
gion (0.4–1.2 μm), and the maximum absorptance is 72% with an
456 nm (1, 2, 0) or (2, 1, 0)
452 nm (1, 2, 1) or (2, 1, 1) average absorptance about 85% for the simple fishnet-structure
434 nm (0, 1, 7) or (1, 0, 7) absorber (i.e., W film/fishnet W grating). Additionally, by filling the
422 nm (1, 2, 3) or (2, 1, 3) nano-cavities of fishnet-structure absorber with SiO2 [i.e., W film/
406 nm (0, 2, 5) or (2, 0, 5) fishnet W grating (filled with SiO2)], the average absorptance reaches
400 nm (1, 1, 7)
about 90%. Furthermore, by adding SiO2 film on the top of dielectric

6
Q. Liang et al. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells 215 (2020) 110664

Fig. 5. Energy dissipation within the absorber. (a) The contributions of the top SiO2 film, the fishnet tungsten grating (filled with SiO2) and bottom tungsten film to
the absorptance. (b) The contributions of three different parts of the fishnet tungsten grating (filled with SiO2) to the absorptance.

Fig. 6. Absorption properties of different ab­

sorbers. (a) Absorption spectra comparison of the
simple fishnet-structure absorber (i.e., W film/
fishnet W grating), the dielectric filled fishnet-
structure absorber [i.e., W film/fishnet W
grating (filled with SiO2)] and the proposed
absorber [i.e., W film/fishnet W grating (filled
with SiO2)/SiO2 film]. (b) The absorption spectra
of the proposed absorber with the thickness of the
topmost SiO2 film (t) varies from 0 to 100 nm
with a step of 10 nm, while other geometric pa­
rameters are fixed as default.

filled fishnet-structure [i.e., W film/fishnet W grating (filled with SiO2)/

SiO2 film], the spectral absorptance grows even higher and shows nearly
perfect absorption in the wavelength range of 0.4–1.2 μm with the
optimized thickness, i.e. 60 nm. Fig. 6b shows the effects of the thickness
(t) of the topmost SiO2 film on the spectral absorptance of the designed
absorber when it varies from 0 to 100 nm with a step of 10 nm. It can be
observed from Fig. 6b that the optimized thickness of the topmost SiO2
film is 60 nm. Note that, SiO2 is a transparent material from deep ul­
traviolet to mid-infrared region due to the fairly low permittivity of
SiO2. And thus, the SiO2 film acts as an anti-reflection layer to further
reduce the impedance mismatch between W and the surrounding me­
dium. By adding the SiO2 film on the top of the dielectric filled fishnet-
structure, the proposed solar absorber could obtain nearly perfect ab­
sorption in the visible and near-infrared regions.

3.3.2. The effect of the grating depth

The thickness of the middle tungsten (i.e. the grating depth) cover
layer filled with SiO2 is also analyzed and elucidated to show the
dependence of absorptance, as depicted in Fig. 7. It can be observed
from Fig. 7 that the average absorptance increases with the increasing of
the grating depth from 200 nm to 500 nm in the visible and near-
infrared regions. The reason is that the grating cavity begin to support
localized multiple resonances which contribute to the great absorption
properties of the absorber in such a wavelength range, and the number
of resonant modes increases with the increasing of the grating depth
[32–34]. It is also revealed that deeper gratings with rectangular cavities
performs better than shallow gratings. In addition, the absorptance is
not very sensitive to the grating depth when the grating depth is larger
than 500 nm. Thus, the tungsten grating depth should be at least 500 nm
in order to get nearly perfect absorption performance in the visible to
near-infrared regions.
Fig. 7. Absorbance spectra of absorbers with the depth (d) of the fishnet
tungsten grating varies from 0 to 800 nm.
3.3.3. The effect of the lateral filling ratio and the period
Fig. 8 illustrates the effect of lateral filling ratio (f) and period (P) on
the absorption spectra of the designed solar absorber. It can be seen from
Fig. 8a that the width of the nanocavity (w2) decreases with the
increasing of the lateral filling ratio (from 0.1 to 0.4), the absorption
bandwidth becomes narrower. This is related to the maximum localized
resonance modes that are confined within nanocavities. The cutoff
wavelength blue-shifts with the width of the nanocavity (w2) becoming
smaller. It also shows that the lateral filling ratio of 0.15 promises the
widest absorption bandwidth. Fig. 8b shows the effect of the tungsten

7
Q. Liang et al.
Fig. 8. Absorption spectra for absorber with different geometric parameters. (a) The effect of lateral filling ratios (f) on the absorptance of the absorber. (b) The effect
of periods (P) on the absorptance of the absorber.
grating period (P) on the spectral absorption properties of the designed
absorber for normal incident light when P varies from 300 nm to 600 nm
with a step of 100 nm. The absorptance is above 0.95 for periods of both
300 nm and 400 nm in the considered wavelength range. When the
period increases to 500 nm and 600 nm, only three absorption peaks
appear in the whole investigated wavelength range.
3.4. The effect of polarization angle and oblique incident angle
Polarization insensitivity can be achieved by employing a highly
symmetric structure. The absorptance of the proposed absorber as a
function of wavelength and polarization angle is also calculated to test
the dependence of the presented broadband solar absorber on the po­
larization angle, as is illustrated in Fig. 9. It can be seen from Fig. 9 that
the broadband absorption of the present absorber is independent of
polarization angle.
In practical applications, it should be noted that the sunlight is
randomly distributed and not always normalized to the surface of the
solar absorber. Thus, the insensitivity of the absorption properties to the
incident angle is also very crucial for an ideal solar absorber to maximize
the solar energy harvesting. To further illustrate the optical properties of
the proposed solar absorber, the spectral absorptance of the absorber at
various oblique incident angles up to 80� for the TM-/TE-polarized light,
and unpolarized light is calculated, as respectively shown in Figs. 10a–c.
After calculating the absorptance for TM-polarized light and TE-
polarized light, the absorptance of the proposed solar absorber for
Fig. 9. Absorption spectra of the present absorbers with different angles of
polarization at normal incidence.
8
Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells 215 (2020) 110664
unpolarized light can be calculated by taking the average of both po­
larizations, which is Aun¼(ATM þ ATE)/2 [39].
It is observed from Figs. 10a–c that the absorptance of the proposed
solar absorber still remains above 90%, 75% and 85% in the wavelength
range from 400 nm to 1200 nm with an incident angle up to 60� for TM
and TE polarizations, as well as unpolarized light, respectively. There­
fore, the proposed solar absorber exhibits high angular tolerance up to
60� for TM and TE polarizations, as well as unpolarized light, which is
crucial and necessary for solar energy harvesting. The angle-
insensitivity of the proposed solar absorber is attributed to the CRs in
the nanocavities.
4. Conclusion
In summary, a perfect spectrally selective solar absorber base on a
dielectric filled fishnet tungsten grating has been proposed and numer­
ically investigated. The proposed solar absorber has nearly perfect ab­
sorption in the visible and near-infrared regions (400–1200 nm). The
total solar absorptance efficiency of the designed solar absorber in the
visible and near-infrared regions is 94.6% at normal incidence, while the
total normal emittance in the mid-infrared region is lower than 0.05 at
100 � C, with a high photothermal conversion efficiency of 93.4%. The
physical mechanisms responsible for the high broadband absorptance
are attributed to the impedance matching with the surrounding me­
dium, the high intrinsic loss of tungsten, the excitation of SPPs and CRs.
In addition, the effects of geometric parameters including the thickness
of the topmost dielectric film, the grating depth, the lateral filling ratio
and the period have also been analyzed. Furthermore, the effects of light
polarization and oblique incidence angle have been investigated to
validate that the proposed structure is polarization-independence and
angular insensitivity up to 60� , which is greatly benefit for solar thermal
applications. The present selective spectral solar absorber opens a new
gate for designing functional surfaces used in thermophotovoltaic con­
version, thermal emitters, solar-energy harvesting, and so on.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Qiuqun Liang: Formal analysis, Data curation, Writing - original
draft. Qiu Yin: Formal analysis, Data curation, Writing - original draft.
Lei Chen: Formal analysis, Data curation, Writing - original draft.
Zhaolong Wang: Formal analysis, Data curation, Writing - original
draft, Supervision. Xuandong Chen: Writing - review & editing.
Q. Liang et al.
Fig. 10. Absorbance spectra of absorbers with different incident angles. (a) TM polarized wave. (b) TE polarized wave. (c) Unpolarized light. The incident angle steps
is 5� from 0� to 80� .
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation
of China (51420105009, 51722503, and 51621004), Natural Science
Foundation of Guangxi Province (2017GXNSFBA198038), Guangxi
Universities Scientific Research Project(2020KY06029), Scientific
Research Foundation of GuiLin University of Technology
(002401003523), and Independent Project Foundation of Guangxi Key
Laboratory of New Energy and Building Energy Saving (19-J-21-30).
Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Youth Fund
(S2020JJYXQN0037).
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