Ultra-broadband polarization-independent perfect absorber based on phase change material (Ge2Sb2Te5 or GST) for the visible and infrared regions.

Broadband optical absorbers are increasingly in demand in various applications, including solar cells and radiative cooling systems. Among various types of structures, absorbers based on metamaterial structures have attracted much attention. However, they generally suffer from the issues of narrow bandwidth, high-cost fabrication, and high sensitivity to polarization changes. This paper presents a broadband, polarization-independent metamaterial absorber working in both infrared and visible frequency regimes. This structure is composed of a continuous phase-change material film ( Ge 2 Sb 2 Te 5 ) separated between two thin spacer layers of SiO 2 , and an array of amorphous Silicon particles located on the top of the structure. The proposed device was shown to exhibit remarkable absorptivity (more than 90 percent) within a broad range of frequencies starting from 250 to 1050 THz. In addition, thanks to the structural symmetry, the strong absorbance shows a considerable overlap between transverse magnetic (TM) and transverse electric (TE) modes over an extensive range of incident angles. The designing procedure for this absorber can be used as a guideline for designing similar metamaterial absorbers in any desirable frequency band. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]