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Disordered and densely packed ITO nanorods as an excellent lithography-free optical solar reflector metasurface
- Source :
- ACS Photonics
- Publication Year :
- 2019
- Publisher :
- American Chemical Society, 2019.
-
Abstract
- Precise control and stabilization of the operating temperature environment of spacecraft and satellites during their life cycle is of paramount importance to increase device reliabilities and reduce the thermomechanical constraints. Optical solar reflectors are the physical interface between the spacecraft and space, and they are broadband mirrors for the solar spectrum, while having strong thermal emission in the mid-infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Strong light matter interactions in metamaterials and metasurfaces offer significant advantages compared to the conventional methods in performance, weight, launch, and assembly costs. However, the fabrication complexity of these metastructures due to necessitating lithography hinders their upscaling, reproducibility, large-area compatibility, and mass production. In this regard, we propose a facile, lithography-free fabrication route, exploiting oblique deposition to design a metasurface based on disordered and densely packed Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) nanorod forests. The excellent light trapping capability of the nanorod forests, randomness in the geometrical dimensions of these nanorods, combined with the lossy plasmonic nature of ITO in the thermal-infrared range led to strong coupling of thermal radiation to broad plasmonic resonances and, consequently, an experimental emissivity of 0.968, in a very wide range from 2.5 to 25 pm. In the solar spectrum, the low-loss dielectric characteristic of ITO resulted in an experimental solar absorptivity as small as 0.168. Our proposed design with high throughput, robustness, low cost, and high performance, therefore, shows great promise not only for space missions, but also for promoting environmentally friendly passive radiative cooling for our planet and thermal imaging in the field of security labeling.
- Subjects :
- Fabrication
Materials science
Transparent conductive oxides
Oblique-angle deposition
Physics::Optics
02 engineering and technology
7. Clean energy
01 natural sciences
010309 optics
Operating temperature
0103 physical sciences
Metamaterial perfect absorbers
Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Lithography
Plasmon
Spacecraft
business.industry
Metamaterial
021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology
Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
Indium tin oxide
Metasurfaces
13. Climate action
Physics::Space Physics
Optical solar reflectors
Optoelectronics
Plasmonics
Nanorod
0210 nano-technology
business
Biotechnology
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- ACS Photonics
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....d83e18c4c96bc3c9a49a315979e9f0ba