Tungsten black absorber for solar light with wide angular operation range

Abstract

Using three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain simulations, we designed a structured tungsten slab with subwavelength periodicity that displays near-complete absorptivity throughout the entire solar spectrum over a wide angular range. The structure consists of a square lattice array of pyramids. The parameters of the pyramids are chosen to provide the optimal impedance matching between free space and tungsten, while the period is chosen to be subwavelength in order to generate absorption over an ultrabroad band of wavelengths.