Broadband absorbers are required for solar energy harvesting because they efficiently absorb the incident photon in the wide-ranging solar spectrum. To ensure high absorption of photons, metamaterial absorbers (MMAs) have been a growing area of interest in recent years. In this article, an MMA is proposed using a metal–insulator–metal (MIM) structure (Ni–SiO2–Ni) that shows a near-unity broadband absorption of wavelengths from 300 to 1600 nm, with a 95.77% average absorption and a peak absorption of 99.999% at 772.82 nm. The MMA is polarization insensitive as well as wide incident angle stable. Analysis of the effects of mechanical bending on the absorption of the proposed structure shows that absorption holds satisfactory values at different degrees of mechanical loading. The suggested MMA unit cell structure was computationally simulated using the Finite Integration Technique (FIT) and verified using the Finite Element Method (FEM). To analyze the feasibility of the proposed MMA as a solar cell, it is investigated with the universal AM 1.5 solar spectrum characteristics. Besides solar energy harvesting, the proposed MMA unit cell may be employed in a variety of diverse optical applications, including sensors, detectors, and imaging.

Solar spectrum is supposed to be a key source of renewable energy in the form of electromagnetic (EM) radiation. For efficiently harnessing this abundant energy, Metamaterial Absorber (MMA) emerges as a game-changing tool. Along with solar energy harvesting, MMA can be used in biochemical sensors, optical modulators, magnetic resonance imaging, photoelectric detectors, plasmonic sensors, etc. In this paper, a sun shape resonator-based MMA is designed with three layers of materials (W-SiO2-W) and analysed for broadband absorption encompassing the entire visible region (390-760nm). The unit cell that is presented in this study is polarization-insensitive and ultrathin with an average absorption of 96.43% with an optimum peak of 99.99% at 523.22nm. The proposed MMA exhibits satisfactory absorption under various oblique angles. The effect of mechanical loading is also investigated and the MMA is found to hold good broadband absorbance for some extents of mechanical bending. Finite Integration Technique (FIT) is used to numerically simulate the proposed MMA unit cell structure and validated with the Finite Element Method (FEM). The suggested MMA in this paper can be used in many optical applications like efficient nano solar cells, imaging applications, sensors, light detectors, biochemical applications, etc.

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