Design and Development of Perfect Dual-band Metamaterial Absorber Array to Enhance the Efficiency of Solar Energy Harvesting in Infrared Radiation

Abstract

In this research, a proposed metamaterial absorber is designed and developed to enhance the solar cells’ efficiency. The design consists of circular shapes with rectangular gaps printed at the top surface, and copper sheet as a ground. The structure operated at terra frequency bands, to absorb all range infrared from the solar spectrum. Moreover, the designed metamaterial unit cell is used to develop a metamaterial array absorber, for increasing the rate of the energy harvesting from the solar spectrum. The effect of the rectangular gap on the absorber performance is studied and the optimum value is found at 100 nm. The results revealed two absorption rates: approximately 99.98% at resonance frequency 80.2, and 99.32% at 68.35 THz for both designs.