Abstract
The previous research focused on developing narrow band solar absorbers which have specific applications. But for applications like photovoltaics, solar energy harvesting a broadband absorption response is a prerequisite and a necessity. To achieve this, we have explored a solar absorber based on a Zirconium resonator and Germanium substrate. The absorption is exceeding 95% for a bandwidth of 1800 nm. Apart from this, the absorption is also greater than 98% for a bandwidth of 1230 nm from 0.2 to 1.43 mu m. At the wavelength lambda(1) = 0.28, lambda(2) = 0.71, lambda(3) = 1.19, and lambda(4) = 1.3 mu m, the presented structure attained the four highest absorption rates of 99.99%, 99.73%, 99.72%, and 99.05%, correspondingly. We have explored the effect on the absorption of the geometrical parameters and identified an optimized design. Additionally, the developed structure absorption reaction is polarization-insensitive, and large angular for the incident angles between 0 degrees and 50 degrees. The overall absorption rate of 97.11% for the developed structural design covering the whole spectrum is also achieved. Our proposed solar absorber can be used in various solar systems such as heat transfer and generation of electricity through solar cells where the absorber is an essential element.