The optical performance of a dielectric-metal-dielectric anti-reflective absorber structure

TL;DR

This paper analyzes a three-layer dielectric-metal-dielectric structure for electromagnetic absorption, deriving conditions for total absorption and demonstrating feasible fabrication for various metals, with applications in infrared detection and energy harvesting.

Contribution

It introduces a novel dielectric-metal-dielectric absorber design with feasible fabrication parameters and broad applicability, unlike bi-layer structures.

Findings

Conditions for total absorption are derived.

Layer thicknesses are feasible to fabricate for any metal.

Potential applications in infrared detectors and energy harvesting.

Abstract

The absorption of electromagnetic radiation by a planar structure, consisting of a three-layer dielectric-metal-dielectric coating on a metal back-reflector is analysed. The conditions for total absorption are derived. Our analysis shows that, in contrast with bi-layer structures, the calculated layer thicknesses are feasible to fabricate for any metal. The proposed absorber design is of potential use in infrared and longer wavelength detectors and for radiant energy harvesting devices.