Numerical Analysis and Parametric Optimization of T-Shaped Symmetrical Metasurface with Broad Bandwidth for Solar Absorber Application Based on Graphene Material

Abstract

Solar energy is an essential renewable energy source among all the other renewable energy sources. It is possible to improve the efficiency of the solar energy absorber by increasing the solar energy absorber’s capacity for absorption, which can help in building better solar-based renewable energy devices. The need of covering the whole solar spectrum led us to design this T-shaped metasurface solar absorber which is based on graphene material. The T-shaped absorber gives 90, 88 and 57% absorption in the visible, infrared and UV regions, respectively. This symmetrical structure is also periodic with respect to x-axis and y-axis. This solar absorber demonstrates better efficiency compared to many other existing solar absorbers. The solar absorber is also compared with two other square-1 and square-2 designs to show the improvement in solar energy absorption. The parametric optimization method is applied to optimize the design. The parameters, such as the length and width of the substrate and the thicknesses of the T-shaped metasurface and substrate, are varied to find out the optimized design for maximum solar energy absorption. The optimized parameters obtained from the optimization are 1000, 2500, 3000 and 3000 nm, for resonator thickness, substrate thickness, substrate length and substrate width, respectively. The design results for graphene material and its potential variation are also observed. The design also shows good absorption for a wide-angle of incidence of about 0 to 50°. The increased efficiency of this design can be applied in future solar absorber devices.