Schematic of graphene-based metamaterial absorber. (Source: U. Sydney / NPG)
Researchers at the University of Sydney, Swinburne University of Technology and the Australian National University have collaborated to develop a solar absorbing, ultrathin film with unique properties that has great potential for use in solar thermal energy harvesting. The 90-nanometre material can be rapidly heated up to 160 degrees under natural sunlight in an open environment.
This new graphene-based material also opens new avenues in thermophotovoltaics, solar seawater desalination, infrared light source and heater, optical components as modulators and interconnects for communication devices and photodetectors. It could even lead to the development of invisible cloaking technology through developing large-scale thin films enclosing the objects to be hidden. Martijn De Sterke from the University of Sydney Nano Institute said: “Through our collaboration we came up with a very innovative and successful result. We have developed a new class of optical material, the properties of which can be tuned for multiple uses.”
The researchers have developed a 2.5cm x 5cm working prototype to demonstrate the photo-thermal performance of the graphene-based metamaterial absorber. They have also proposed a scalable manufacture strategy to fabricate the proposed graphene-based absorber at low cost. “This is among many graphene innovations in our group,” said Baohua Jia, Research Leader, Nanophotonic Solar Technology, in Swinburne’s Centre for Micro-Photonics. “In this work, the reduced graphene oxide layer and grating structures were coated with a solution and fabricated by a laser nanofabrication method, which are both scalable and low cost.”
“Our cost-effective and scalable graphene absorber is promising for integrated, large-scale applications, such as energy-harvesting, thermal emitters, optical interconnects, photodetectors and optical modulators,” Han Lin, Senior Research Fellow at Swinburne’s Centre for Micro-Photonics. “Fabrication on a flexible substrate and the robustness stemming from graphene make it suitable for industrial use,” Keng-Te Lin, another researcher from Swinburne, said. “The physical effect causing this outstanding absorption in such a thin layer is quite general and thereby opens up a lot of exciting applications,” said Bjorn Sturmberg, who completed his PhD in physics at the University of Sydney in 2016. (Source: U. Sydney)
Link: Centre for Micro-Photonics, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Australia
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