Thermally switchable meta-material absorber involving Vanadium Dioxide semiconductor-metal transition for thermo photovoltaic conversion
- Publication Type
- Original research
- Authors
- Fathi Bendelala
- Ali Cheknane
- Hikmat S. Hilal
A new switchable absorber design using meta-materials for thermo photovoltaic applications is proposed here. Conventional absorbents are normally non-adjustable with narrow band-widths and polarization-dependence. The present study describes an alternative infra-red absorber structure with tunable characteristics. The absorber is based on VO2 which exhibits transition from semiconductor to metallic conductor by thermal effect. With this design, the results show that wide-band absorption can be achieved. The absorption bandwidth can be improved from 15.94 to 36.75 THz. With 40.42% relative shift in the peak frequency, a maximum absorption efficiency of 99% can be achieved. This structure design is polarization-independent of normal incident radiations, and may accommodate radiations from wide oblique angles. These new features make the new thermally adjustable absorber potentially useful in thermo-photovoltaic conversion devices.
- Title
- Materials Research Express
- Publisher
- Institute Of Physics
- Publisher Country
- United States of America
- Indexing
- Thomson Reuters
- Impact Factor
- 1.068
- Publication Type
- Prtinted only
- Volume
- 5
- Year
- 2018
- Pages
- 015803