Related papers: Ultra-Thin Metal Films for Enhanced Solar Absorpti…
It was predicted long ago that ultra-thin metallic films must exhibit unusual optical properties for radiation frequencies from rf to infrared domain. A film would remain highly reflective even when it is orders of magnitude thinner than a…
It is of significance to incorporate spectral selectivity technology into solar thermal engineering, especially at high operational temperatures. This work demonstrates spectrally selective solar absorbers made of multilayer tungsten,…
We report on the optical characterization of semicontinuous nanostructured silver films exhibiting tunable optical reflectance asymmetries. The films are obtained using a multi-step process, where a nanocrystalline silver film is first…
Absorption of microwave by metallic conductors is exclusively inefficient, though being natively broadband, due to the huge impedance mismatch between metal and free space. Reducing the thickness to ultrathin conductive film may improve the…
Power-conversion efficiency is a critical factor for the wider adoption of solar-cell modules. Thin-film solar cells are cheap and easy to manufacture, but their efficiencies are low compared to crystalline-silicon solar cells and need to…
Ultrathin planar absorbing layers, including semiconductor and metal films, and 2D materials, are promising building blocks for solar energy harvesting devices but poor light absorption has been a critical issue. Although interference in…
Light absorption plays an important role in many research areas. Here, we propose and demonstrate a thin ultra-broadband strong light absorber consisting of periodic taper arrays on a gold substrate.
It is currently possible to fabricate crystalline silicon solar cells with the absorber thickness ranging from a few hundreds of micrometers (conventional wafer-based cells) to devices as thin as $1\,\mu\mathrm{m}$. In this work, we use a…
Self-consistent simulations of the ultrafast electron dynamics in thin metal films are performed. A regime of nonlinear oscillations is observed, which corresponds to ballistic electrons bouncing back and forth against the film surfaces.…
The transparency of silicon in the infrared region enables the design of nano/microstructures for implementation in devices to harvest the infrared (IR) part of the solar spectrum. Herein we report a strategy that uses arrays of inverted…
A 2-D photonic crystal was integrated experimentally into a thin-film crystalline-silicon solar cell of 1-{\mu}m thickness, after numerical optimization maximizing light absorption in the active material. The photonic crystal boosted the…
Realizing laterally continuous ultra-thin gold films on transparent substrates is a challenge of significant technological importance. In the present work, formation of ultra-thin gold films on fused silica is studied, demonstrating how…
Recently, a homogenization procedure has been proposed, based on the tight lower bounds of the Bergman-Milton formulation, and successfully applied to dilute ternary nanocomposites to predict optical data without using any fitting…
Brownian thermal noise of thin-film coatings is a fundamental limit for high-precision experiments based on optical resonators such as gravitational-wave interferometers. Here we present the results of a research activity aiming to develop…
Usually, single-crystal material has a longer carrier diffusion length due to fewer defects. Here, we report a nano/amorphous copper oxide and selenium (COS) composite film prepared by radio frequency magnetron co-sputtering of CuO and Se…
Synthetic perovskites with photovoltaic properties open a new era in solar photovoltaics. Due to high optical absorption perovskite-based thin-film solar cells are usually considered as fully absorbing solar radiation on condition of ideal…
Continuous films of metals like gold and silver with a thickness of a few tens of nm have poor optical transmission in the visible and infrared. However, the same films become largely transparent when the transmission is mediated by coupled…
The photosensitivity of silicon is inherently very low in the visible electromagnetic spectrum, and it drops rapidly beyond 800 nm in near-infrared wavelengths. Herein, we have experimentally demonstrated a technique utilizing…
Scattering from metal nanoparticles near their localized plasmon resonance; especially, the resonances of noble metals which are mostly in the visible or infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum; is a way of improving light absorption…
Topological insulator films are promising materials for optoelectronics due to a strong optical absorption and a thickness dependent band gap of the topological surface states. They are superior candidates for photodetector applications in…