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Omnidirectional absorption in nanostructured metal surfaces

Nature Photonics volume 2, pages 299–301 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Light absorbers available at present provide far from optimal black-body performance. The need for more efficient absorbers is particularly acute on the microscale, where they can play a significant role in preventing crosstalk between optical interconnects, and also as thermal light-emitting sources. Several efforts have been made in this context to achieve near-total but directionally dependent absorption using periodic grating structures1,2,3,4,5,6,7. However, the ability to absorb light completely for any incident direction of light remains a challenge. Here we show that total omnidirectional absorption of light can be achieved in nanostructured metal surfaces that sustain localized optical excitations. The effect is realized over a full range of incident angles and can be tuned throughout the visible and near-infrared regimes by scaling the nanostructure dimensions. We suggest that surfaces displaying omnidirectional absorption will play a key role in devising efficient photovoltaic cells in which the absorbed light leads to electron–hole pair production.

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Figure 1: Total light absorption in nanostructured metal surfaces.
Figure 2: Omnidirectional light absorption.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank V. Popov for valuable suggestions and fruitful discussions. This work was supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (MEC), under contract MAT2007-66050, the EU-FP6, under contract NMP4-2006-016881 ‘SPANS’, the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian Foundation for Basic Research (grant 07-02-91011), and the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) NanoPhotonics Portfolio EP/C511786/1.

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Author notes

  1. J. J. Baumberg

    Present address: Present address: NanoPhotonics Centre, Department of Physics, University of Cambridge, JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge, CB3 OHE, UK,

  2. T. V. Teperik: On leave from: Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics (Saratov Division), Russian Academy of Sciences, Zelyonaya 38, 410019 Saratov, Russia

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Óptica – CSIC, Serrano 121, Madrid, 28006, Spain

    T. V. Teperik & F. J. García de Abajo

  2. Donostia International Physics Center, Aptdo. 1072, San Sebastian, 20080, Spain

    T. V. Teperik, F. J. García de Abajo & A. G. Borisov

  3. Laboratoire des Collisions Atomiques et Moléculaires, UMR 8625 CNRS–Université Paris-Sud, Orsay Cedex, 91405, France

    A. G. Borisov

  4. School of Chemistry, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK

    M. Abdelsalam & P. N. Bartlett

  5. School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK

    Y. Sugawara & J. J. Baumberg

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  1. T. V. Teperik
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Correspondence to F. J. García de Abajo.

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Teperik, T., García de Abajo, F., Borisov, A. et al. Omnidirectional absorption in nanostructured metal surfaces. Nature Photon 2, 299–301 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2008.76

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