Multi-scale and Complex Metallic Structure Networks for Novel Solar Energy Harvesting-Conversion Applications
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Final thesis
Type
DissertationAuthors
Tian, Yi
Advisors
Fratalocchi, Andrea
Committee members
Li, Xiaohang
Han, Yu

Di Falco, Andrea
Program
Electrical EngineeringDate
2019-05Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/652825
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The global consumption of fossil fuels continues to increase due to the rapid growth of energy demand, as a consequence of expanding population and human activities. Fast climate change is another inescapable issue caused by humans that need to be addressed. The development of solar energy conversion technologies is widely considered as one of the most promising solutions to sustainably maintain a modern lifestyle of the society and create a carbon-neutral social development operation mode. The solar energy is carried and delivered in the form of electromagnetic fields. Therefore, the efficiency of photon collection is the primary factor to create any solar energy conversion systems. Through the inspiration from nature, the functionalized disorder, with a specific design and engineering, can introduce unusual light-matter interaction behaviors, and thus offer a potential capability to achieve perfect light harvesting. In my thesis, we develop complex Epsilon-Near-Zero (ENZ) metamaterials that can be used either as light capturing networks or the photoactive media by turning the energy damping ratio between radiative and non-radiative channels. We successfully integrate it into thin-film photovoltaic modules with showing an excellent performance enhancement led by broadband light localization effect. Thanks to universal of such complex ENZ metamaterials, with combining a thin layer of dielectric, we further develop efficient hot-carriers driven plasmonic photo-catalysts for artificial green chemical fuel synthesis. The detailed theoretic analysis is presented in this work.Citation
Tian, Y. (2019). Multi-scale and Complex Metallic Structure Networks for Novel Solar Energy Harvesting-Conversion Applications. KAUST Research Repository. https://doi.org/10.25781/KAUST-5E7J6ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.25781/KAUST-5E7J6