Broadband polarization-independent resonant light absorption using ultrathin plasmonic super absorbers

Koray Aydin (), Vivian E. Ferry, Ryan M. Briggs and Harry A. Atwater
Additional contact information
Koray Aydin: Thomas J. Watson Laboratories of Applied Physics, California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Blvd., MC 128-95 Pasadena, California 91125, USA.
Vivian E. Ferry: Thomas J. Watson Laboratories of Applied Physics, California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Blvd., MC 128-95 Pasadena, California 91125, USA.
Ryan M. Briggs: Thomas J. Watson Laboratories of Applied Physics, California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Blvd., MC 128-95 Pasadena, California 91125, USA.
Harry A. Atwater: Thomas J. Watson Laboratories of Applied Physics, California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Blvd., MC 128-95 Pasadena, California 91125, USA.

Nature Communications, 2011, vol. 2, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract Resonant plasmonic and metamaterial structures allow for control of fundamental optical processes such as absorption, emission and refraction at the nanoscale. Considerable recent research has focused on energy absorption processes, and plasmonic nanostructures have been shown to enhance the performance of photovoltaic and thermophotovoltaic cells. Although reducing metallic losses is a widely sought goal in nanophotonics, the design of nanostructured 'black' super absorbers from materials comprising only lossless dielectric materials and highly reflective noble metals represents a new research direction. Here we demonstrate an ultrathin (260 nm) plasmonic super absorber consisting of a metal–insulator–metal stack with a nanostructured top silver film composed of crossed trapezoidal arrays. Our super absorber yields broadband and polarization-independent resonant light absorption over the entire visible spectrum (400–700 nm) with an average measured absorption of 0.71 and simulated absorption of 0.85. Proposed nanostructured absorbers open a path to realize ultrathin black metamaterials based on resonant absorption.

Date: 2011
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms1528 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:2:y:2011:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms1528

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1528

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().