Enhanced broadband optical absorption from nanostructured nickel thin-films for solar energy applications

Author

Ahmad, N. ; Stokes, J. ; Fox, N.A. ; Teng, M. ; Cryan, M.J.

Author_Institution

Sch. of Phys., Dept. of Electr. & Electron. Eng., Univ. of Bristol, Bristol, UK

fYear

2012

fDate

2-5 July 2012

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

4

Abstract

This paper presents results obtained from Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) and Transfer Matrix Method (TMM) modelling of nickel thin-films. It is shown that by adding a periodic grating to the surface of the nickel we can dramatically increase its optical absorption over the 300 nm-1000 nm spectral range at normal incidence. The main aim of this work is to maximise the optical absorption of a thin nickel film as part of a solar-thermal energy conversion device.

Keywords

diffraction gratings; finite difference time-domain analysis; light absorption; nanostructured materials; nickel; photothermal conversion; solar energy conversion; thin films; Ni; enhanced broadband optical absorption; finite difference time domain; nanostructured nickel thin-films; periodic grating; solar energy applications; solar-thermal energy conversion device; transfer matrix method modelling; wavelength 300 nm to 1000 nm; Absorption; Finite difference methods; Gratings; Integrated optics; Nickel; Optical films; Time domain analysis; absorption; broadband; energy; nickel; solar; thin-film;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Transparent Optical Networks (ICTON), 2012 14th International Conference on

Conference_Location

Coventry

ISSN

2161-2056

Print_ISBN

978-1-4673-2228-7

Electronic_ISBN

2161-2056

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICTON.2012.6253726

Filename

6253726