Spectral absorption control of femtosecond laser-treated metals and application in solar-thermal devices

摘要

Materials processing: laser modified metals Femtosecond-laser processing of materials has many potential applications including high-efficiency incandescent lamps and solar-thermal receivers. A longstanding challenge is the ability to control the emerging properties of the treated surfaces. A research team at Chunlei Guo's lab from the Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester showed that the spectral absorption properties of treated metals can be controlled systematically by controlling the laser processing parameters. They showed that the formed structures act as interacting nano-antennas which absorbs light based on the excitation of electromagnetic resonances. As a direct application, they converted a Tungsten surface to a selective solar-absorber and used it to operate a thermoelectric generator which resulted in a 130% increase in efficiency compared to an untreated tungsten receiver.