Broadband light absorption with disordered gold nanostructures

Abstract

Broadband light absorbers are a crucial part of many applications, including thermophotovoltaic cells, plasmonic scatterers for photovoltaic cells, broadband thermal emitters, cloaking devices, and optical interconnects.1–5 Ideally, such broadband absorbers should behave like a black body, i.e., a dark material that absorbs radiation at all wavelengths, angles, and polarizations, and without exhibiting any transmission or reflection. In reality, however, it is difficult to create a perfect black body because practical materials are intrinsically non-ideal.