title: Self-assembly of highly efficient, broadband plasmonic absorbers for solar steam generation.
abstract: The study of ideal absorbers, which can efficiently absorb light over a broad range of wavelengths, is of fundamental importance, as well as critical for many applications from solar steam generation and thermophotovoltaics to light/thermal detectors. As a result of recent advances in plasmonics, plasmonic absorbers have attracted a lot of attention. However, the performance and scalability of these absorbers, predominantly fabricated by the top-down approach, need to be further improved to enable widespread applications. We report a plasmonic absorber which can enable an average measured absorbance of ~99% across the wavelengths from 400 nm to 10 μm, the most efficient and broadband plasmonic absorber reported to date. The absorber is fabricated through self-assembly of metallic nanoparticles onto a nanoporous template by a one-step deposition process. Because of its efficient light absorption, strong field enhancement, and porous structures, which together enable not only efficient solar absorption but also significant local heating and continuous stream flow, plasmonic absorber-based solar steam generation has over 90% efficiency under solar irradiation of only 4-sun intensity (4 kW m(-2)). The pronounced light absorption effect coupled with the high-throughput self-assembly process could lead toward large-scale manufacturing of other nanophotonic structures and devices.
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-8405-5310
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
authors.forename: Yingling
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA.
authors.forename: Dengxin
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
authors.forename: Pei
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA.
authors.forename: Qiaoqiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Gan
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Wisconsin Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
authors.forename: Zongfu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
authors.forename: Jia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhu
mesh_terms: D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D036103:Nanotechnology; D012993:Solar Energy; D013227:Steam; D013472:Sunlight; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance
chemical_list: D013227:Steam
keywords: Plasmonics; absorber; self-assembly; solar steam