Shiwei Shu

Triple-layer Fabry-Perot absorber with near-perfect absorption in visible and near-infrared regime

A simple absorber design which enables near-perfect absorption in the visible and near-infrared regions is presented. The absorber is an unpatterned metal/dielectric/metal triple-layer, e.g., a 20 nm-thick metal film as the top layer, a 250 nm-thick dielectric film as the middle layer, and a 200 nm-thick metal film as the bottom layer. It was found that the high-efficiency absorption at specific wavelengths is mainly due to the Fabry-Perot (FP) resonances in the dielectric middle layer which result in trapping of the resonant light in the middle layer and thus enhanced absorption efficiency.

Selective Removal of the Outer Shells of Anodic TiO2 Nanotubes

A facile electrochemical method to selectively remove the outer walls of anodic TiO(2) nanotubes by leaving the as-anodized nanotubes in the same electrolyte and applying an electric field parallel to the anodic film for several minutes is reported. The better-separated single-walled TiO(2) nanotubes thus obtained show significantly improved photocatalytic efficiency compared with their non-etched counterparts.

Electrochemical fabrication and optical properties of porous tin oxide films with structural colors

Photonic crystals with porous features not only provide the capability to control light but also enable structural colors that are environmentally sensitive. Here, we report a novel kind of tin oxide-based photonic crystal featuring periodically arranged air pores fabricated by the periodic anodization of tin foil. The existence of a photonic band gap in the fabricated structure is verified by its vivid color, and its reflective spectra which are responsive to environmental stimuli. Furthermore, the sample colors (i.e., the photonic band gap positions) can be easily adjusted by manipulating the anodization parameters. The theoretical modeling results of these tin oxide photonic crystals agree well with the reported experimental ones.

Porous metal-based multilayers for selective thermal emitters

We report the numerical study of a selective thermal emitter based on a metallic multilayered structure consisting of a graded antireflection top layer, a middle layer with uniform porosity (i.e., volume fraction of voids), and a nonporous substrate layer. Simulation results show that the proposed emitters feature an emission edge in near-IR where the emissivity drops from over 0.9 to below 0.1, for both the TE and TM polarizations. Moreover, these desired emission characteristics persist for a wide range of emission angles with the emission edge nearly nonshifted, making the proposed emitters promising for achieving isotropic thermal emission. The designed emitters are particularly attractive for the thermal-photovoltaic applications by suppressing emission below the photovoltaic material bandgap, which is normally in near-IR.

Wide angle and narrow-band asymmetric absorption in visible and near-infrared regime through lossy Bragg stacks.

Absorber is an important component in various optical devices. Here we report a novel type of asymmetric absorber in the visible and near-infrared spectrum which is based on lossy Bragg stacks. The lossy Bragg stacks can achieve near-perfect absorption at one side and high reflection at the other within the narrow bands (several nm) of resonance wavelengths, whereas display almost identical absorption/reflection responses for the rest of the spectrum. Meanwhile, this interesting wavelength-selective asymmetric absorption behavior persists for wide angles, does not depend on polarization, and can be ascribed to the lossy characteristics of the Bragg stacks. Moreover, interesting Fano resonance with easily tailorable peak profiles can be realized using the lossy Bragg stacks.

Triple-layer Fabry–Perot/SPP aluminum absorber in the visible and near-infrared region

We report a theoretical study on a novel type of absorber that can achieve near perfect absorption in the visible and near-infrared regions by utilizing the Fabry-Perot and the surface plasmon polariton (SPP) effects. The absorber consists of an Al/dielectric/Al triple-layered structure with the top Al layer consisting of an array of holes. The absorption features can be easily controlled by tuning the structural parameters, particularly the porous features of the top Al layer. When the porous features in the top Al layer are significantly smaller than the wavelength, light absorption is enabled through the Fabry-Perot effect. On the other hand, when the porous features in the top layer are at the subwavelength scale, new absorption peaks emerge due to the SPP effect. Furthermore, when the top Al layer consists of an array of hollow rings, the electric field at the interface between the top Al layer and the middle dielectric layer is greatly enhanced due to the plasmonic effect, indicating that the absorber reported here may be suitable for novel applications, e.g., the surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) substrates.

Metallic rugate structures for near-perfect absorbers in visible and near-infrared regions.

Metallic rugate structures are theoretically investigated for achieving near-perfect absorption in the visible and near-infrared regions. Our model builds on nanoporous metal films whose porosity (volume fraction of voids) follows a sinewave along the film thickness. By setting the initial phase of porosity at the top surface as 0, near-perfect absorption is obtained. The impacts of various structural parameters on the characteristic absorption behaviors are studied. Furthermore, multiple peaks or bands with high absorption can be achieved by integrating several periodicities in one structure. The rugate absorbers show near-perfect absorption for TE and TM polarizations and large incident angles.