Design and optimization of a metamaterial absorber for enhanced solar cell efficiency and wide band microwave cross polarization conversion

Abstract

Abstract In this work, the design and construction of a metamaterial (MTM) absorber to increase solar cell efficiency is proposed. MTM is use as frequency selective surface (FSS) in the infrared band. The design is made up of a split ring resonator (SRR) imprinted on the substrate’s top surface, with a copper layer serving as a ground on the back layer of the substrate material. The structure works at tera frequencies to take in all the sun’s infrared wavelengths. Furthermore, a MTM array absorption is formed by using the newly generated MTM unit cell, which improves harvesting energy from the sun spectrum. Both designs demonstrated absorption rates of roughly 99% at resonance frequency 13.29 THz. The parameters of the proposed unit cell are also edited and optimized to operate in the microwave frequency ranges where the wide-band microwave cross polarization conversion (CPC) metasurface (MTS) is simulated, fabricated and validated. The measured data much agrees with the simulation one. The suggested CPC MTS achieves efficient cross-conversion over a large frequency range (19.6–25.9 GHz), with a polarization efficiency of 90% and two bands operation. It has a fractional bandwidth (FBW) of 27.7%. The polarization interaction is stable up to 45° oblique incident angle.