Cost-effective near-perfect absorber at visible frequency based on homogenous meta-surface nickel with two-dimension cylinder array

Abstract

To date, near-perfect light absorbers at visible frequency are still severely impeded by the complicated architecture design and time-consuming costly fabrication procedures. In this work, we design and fabricate a new cost-effective near-perfect absorber at visible frequency based on homogenous meta-surface nickel (Ni) with a two-dimension cylinder array. The simulated and measured average absorption at normal incidence are beyond 94% and 92% over the entire visible wavelength band from 400 nm to 700 nm, respectively. Additionally, the absorbance property was well retained, and the absorptivity still remained beyond 70% when the incident angles vary from 0° to 60°. Our theoretically and experimentally results indicate that the broadband wide-angular absorption can be ascribed to the Rayleigh-Wood anomaly combined with slot modes induced by excited surface plasmon polaritons. Moreover, the low-cost double-beam interference lithography followed by soft nano-imprinting and electroforming technology, which are directly compatible with the cost-effective and high volume manufacturing requirements, are employed to fabricate the proposed absorber. The proposed approach is simple and inexpensive and the obtained ultrathin homogenous meta-surface nickel absorber can be rolled or folded on the surface of various optoelectronics, such as solar system and radiation thermal devices.