Elliptical metallic rings-shaped fractal metamaterial absorber in the visible regime

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 10; no. 1; p. 14035
• Main Authors: Bilal, R. M. H., Saeed, M. A., Choudhury, P. K., Baqir, M. A., Kamal, W., Ali, M. M., Rahim, A. A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 20-08-2020; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 639/166; 639/624; Absorption; Fractals; Humanities and Social Sciences; multidisciplinary; Photovoltaics; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Surface plasmon resonance; Tungsten
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-71032-8

Achieving the broadband response of metamaterial absorbers has been quite challenging due to the inherent bandwidth limitations. Herein, the investigation was made of a unique kind of visible light metamaterial absorber comprising elliptical rings-shaped fractal metasurface using tungsten metal. It was found that the proposed absorber exhibits average absorption of over 90% in the visible wavelength span of 400–750 nm. The features of perfect absorption could be observed because of the localized surface plasmon resonance that causes impedance matching. Moreover, in the context of optoelectronic applications, the absorber yields absorbance up to ~ 70% even with the incidence obliquity in the range of 0°–60° for transverse electric polarization. The theory of multiple reflections was employed to further verify the performance of the absorber. The obtained theoretical results were found to be in close agreement with the simulation results. In order to optimize the results, the performance was analyzed in terms of the figure of merit and operating bandwidth. Significant amount of absorption in the entire visible span, wide-angle stability, and utilization of low-cost metal make the proposed absorber suitable in varieties of photonics applications, in particular photovoltaics, thermal emitters and sensors.