A broadband polarization-independent perfect absorber with tapered cylinder structures

A broadband, polarization-independent, and wide angle metamaterial absorber (MA) with tapered cylinder structures is investigated with finite difference time domain simulations. The titanium nitride (TiN) and indium tin oxide (ITO) thin film are introduced as the tapered cylinder structures. The unit cell structure is mainly composed of two pairs of TiN/ITO layers and one TiN base layer. The absorption is higher than 99% between the wavelength 700 nm and 1000 nm. The broadband, polarization independent average absorption remains above 95% between 400 nm and 1200 nm with a wide range of incident angles from 0 degrees to 40 degrees. The electrical field intensity distributions are studied to disclose the broadband absorption mechanism. This designed broadband absorber appears to be very promising applications in the plasmonic sensing and photovoltaic devices. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.