Superlattice photonic crystal as broadband solar absorber for high temperature operation.

A high performance solar absorber using a 2D tantalum superlattice photonic crystal (PhC) is proposed and its design is optimized for high-temperature energy conversion. In contrast to the simple lattice PhC, which is limited by diffraction in the short wavelength range, the superlattice PhC achieves solar absorption over broadband spectral range due to the contribution from two superposed lattices with different cavity radii. The superlattice PhC geometry is tailored to achieve maximum thermal transfer efficiency for a low concentration system of 250 suns at 1500 K reaching 85.0% solar absorptivity. In the high concentration case of 1000 suns, the superlattice PhC absorber achieves a solar absorptivity of 96.2% and a thermal transfer efficiency of 82.9% at 1500 K, amounting to an improvement of 10% and 5%, respectively, versus the simple square lattice PhC absorber. In addition, the performance of the superlattice PhC absorber is studied in a solar thermophotovoltaic system which is optimized to minimize absorber re-emission by reducing the absorber-to-emitter area ratio and using a highly reflective silver aperture.