Ultra-broadband and wide-angle solar absorber with hierarchical nanohole design based on MXene

Abstract

MXene has received a lot of attention from researchers in the fields of photothermal and photovoltaic due to its excellent optical properties. However, research on MXene-based solar absorbers has rarely been carried out. In this work, we proposed a MXene-based solar absorber with absorption broadband, wide-angle, and polarization insensitive. The absorber has excellent light capture capability, with its average absorption in the solar band as high as 97.8 % and an energy absorption ratio of 98.9 % in the AM1.5 solar radiation spectrum. The electric and magnetic field distributions indicate that the unique hierarchical nanohole design can effectively excite multiple resonance couplings of surface plasmon resonance, cavity resonance, and guided mode resonance. The proposed absorber can still maintain the broadband absorption characteristics within a certain manufacturing tolerances. Moreover, the absorber is insensitive to polarization and has a high light absorption under a large incident angle. We believe that this work holds great promise for solar thermal conversion and heat utilization.