Novel Approaches to Achieving band Absorption in Metamaterial Absorbers for Thermophotovoltaic Systems

The study provides a comprehensive numerical analysis of the absorber and emitter components used in solar thermal photovoltaic (STPV) systems to convert electromagnetic energy into photons. The present analysis incorporates both theoretical dimensions and practical considerations. The absorber was made to give near-unity absorptivity over all solar wavelengths for a large angular range. This allowed it to absorb light from solar sources efficiently, regardless of concentration. It is made up of an array of nickel resonator layers, or pyramids. A sharp emissivity peak is produced at the solar cell bandgap by the emitter, a nickel slab with a Si/SiO2 multilayer stack, which simultaneously suppresses emission at lower frequencies. Our findings indicate that a STPV system utilizing an absorber-emitter pair and a single-junction solar cell can achieve an efficiency higher than the Shockley-Queisser limit when the light concentration is appropriate and the emitter-to-area ratio is fair.