Open Access
Desarrollo de vidrios estructurados con funcionalidades antisuciedad para módulos fotovoltaicos
(2019) Navajas Hernández, David; Sanchis Gúrpide, Pablo; Bengoechea Apezteguía, Jaione; Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales y de Telecomunicación; Telekomunikazio eta Industria Ingeniarien Goi Mailako Eskola Teknikoa
La producción de electricidad mediante tecnología fotovoltaica puede verse afectada negativamente por la acumulación de suciedad en su cara frontal. En este sentido, el desarrollo de soluciones antisuciedad que disminuyan la adherencia del polvo y la arena a los vidrios fotovoltaicos tiene una gran importancia. El objetivo de este proyecto es el estudio de las propiedades antisuciedad de vidrios fotovoltaicos con microestructuras realizadas en su cara frontal. Con esta finalidad, en primer lugar, se estudiarán los principales mecanismos de adherencia de la suciedad a los vidrios fotovoltaicos, y se incorporarán en los modelos existentes el efecto de las microestructuras. A continuación, utilizando procesos de fotolitografía y ataque seco se fabricarán y caracterizarán varios vidrios estructurados con distintos tamaños de las estructuras. Finalmente, se probará experimentalmente, con dos tipos de suciedad artificial estandarizada, el efecto antisuciedad de estos vidrios estructurados.
Open Access
Exploring surface roughness in epsilon-near-zero materials
(IEEE, 2024-10-08) Navajas Hernández, David; Pérez Escudero, José Manuel; Liberal Olleta, Íñigo; Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y de Comunicación; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa, Elektronikoa eta Telekomunikazio Ingeniaritza; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC
The practical application of materials with epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) characteristics heavily depends on the quality of real-world ENZ materials, considering factors like material losses and surface roughness. These materials have drawn interest due to their strong nonlinear responses and unique behavior. In this study, an experimental examination of how surface roughness affects ENZ substrates is presented. We employed silicon carbide (SiC) substrates deliberately engineered to exhibit different levels of roughness, enabling us to analyze samples spanning from a few to hundreds of nanometers in size scales. Substrates with nanoscale roughness experience adverse effects due to longitudinal phonon coupling and strong ENZ fields, while at larger roughness scales, the ENZ band demonstrates to be more robust compared to dielectric and surface phonon polariton (SPhP) bands.
Open Access
Perfect narrowband absorbers using simple lithography-free structures
(IEEE, 2024-10-08) Lezaun Capdevila, Carlos; Navajas Hernández, David; Liberal Olleta, Íñigo; Beruete Díaz, Miguel; Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y de Comunicación; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa, Elektronikoa eta Telekomunikazio Ingeniaritza; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC
Light absorption is a key phenomenon for a variety of technologies [1]: radiative cooling, photovoltaics, sensing, communication and camouflaging are just a few examples. These applications demand scalable and compact devices that modulate their absorption spectra, usually engineered using cavities and/or periodic structures acting as resonators. Weak light matter interaction limits the absorption within ultra-compact devices, although epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) materials allows to greatly increase such interaction [2]. The lack of design standardization presents a big gap for designing absorbers. We present a thorough analysis of an arbitrary material on top of a PEC (perfect electric reflector) and a material separated by a spacer from the PEC. We overview the absorption phenomena for different permittivity regions, thicknesses, angles of incidence and polarization. This work helps standardize the design of these absorber configuration.
Open Access
Surface roughness effects on ENZ media IR spectra
(IEEE, 2023-09-04) Navajas Hernández, David; Pérez Escudero, José Manuel; Liberal Olleta, Íñigo; Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y de Comunicación; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa, Elektronikoa eta Telekomunikazio Ingeniaritza; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC
The development of high-performance nanophotonic technologies faces challenges like material losses and surface roughness. While surface roughness has been studied in the plasmonic regime, its effect on epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) media has been less explored. Two theoretical scenarios arise regarding roughness in ENZ media: one predicts the excitation of a strong longitudinal electric field, while the other suggests minimal changes in reflection due to the large effective wavelength. This study investigates silicon carbide (SiC) as an ENZ substrate, using deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) to create significant surface roughness. The findings show that surface roughness affects the reflection spectra, induces polaritonic effects, and highlights the robustness of SiC against surface roughness. Numerical simulations and experimental measurements confirm these results, revealing that ENZ substrates maintain their reflective properties even with surface roughness on the scale of hundreds of nanometers.
Open Access
Multiple absorption regimes in simple lithography-free structures leading to ultrathin slabs
(2024-07-08) Lezaun Capdevila, Carlos; Navajas Hernández, David; Liberal Olleta, Íñigo; Beruete Díaz, Miguel; Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y de Comunicación; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa, Elektronikoa eta Telekomunikazio Ingeniaritza; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa
Electromagnetic absorbers serve as fundamental components for a wide range of applications, encompassing energy and heat management, sensing, and communications. In this study, we explore several complex permittivity combinations for lithography-free material-reflector and material-spacer-reflector configurations that lead to perfect absorption peaks across distinct permittivity regimes and varying thicknesses. We provide an extensive analysis of angle and polarization dependencies, specifically using silicon carbide as an illustrative example. Our findings reveal the potential for harnessing different absorption regimes within a single device, thus enabling the realization of multiband absorption capabilities. Furthermore, we demonstrate perfect absorption linked with extreme values of permittivity, and we find the conditions to get perfect absorption in ultrathin slabs. In addition, we carry out an analysis about the response at oblique incidence, and we identify a particular mode in the negative permittivity region and its hybridization with epsilon-near-zero modes at oblique incidence. This investigation serves as a valuable standardization of absorber design, offering insights to develop perfect absorbers for infrared applications such as thermal emission, communications, and sensing.
Open Access
Lithography-free perfect narrowband absorbers using simple layered structures
(IEEE, 2024-10-08) Lezaun Capdevila, Carlos; Navajas Hernández, David; Liberal Olleta, Íñigo; Beruete Díaz, Miguel; Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y de Comunicación; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa, Elektronikoa eta Telekomunikazio Ingeniaritza; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC
Light absorbers are key components for multiple applications ranging from heat and energy management to communications and sensing. This work explores different complex permittivity combinations for material-reflector and material-spacer-reflector configurations, achieving perfect absorption under different permittivity regimes and thicknesses. Using silicon carbide, we discuss polarization and angle dependencies, and the potential of exploiting different permittivity regimes within a device for multi-band absorption. This work helps standardize absorber design and offer insights to engineer perfect absorbers for applications such as thermal emission, absorption, communication and sensing.
Open Access
Addressing the impact of surface roughness on epsilon-near-zero silicon carbide substrates
(American Chemical Society, 2023) Navajas Hernández, David; Pérez Escudero, José Manuel; Martínez Hernández, María Elena; Goicoechea Fernández, Javier; Liberal Olleta, Íñigo; Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y de Comunicación; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa, Elektronikoaren eta Telekomunikazio Ingeniaritzaren
Epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) media have been very actively investigated due to their unconventional wave phenomena and strengthened nonlinear response. However, the technological impact of ENZ media will be determined by the quality of realistic ENZ materials, including material loss and surface roughness. Here, we provide a comprehensive experimental study of the impact of surface roughness on ENZ substrates. Using silicon carbide (SiC) substrates with artificially induced roughness, we analyze samples whose roughness ranges from a few to hundreds of nanometer size scales. It is concluded that ENZ substrates with roughness in the few nanometer scale are negatively affected by coupling to longitudinal phonons and strong ENZ fields normal to the surface. On the other hand, when the roughness is in the hundreds of nanometers scale, the ENZ band is found to be more robust than dielectric and surface phonon polariton (SPhP) bands.
Open Access
Enhanced thermal performance of photovoltaic panels based on glass surface texturization
(Elsevier, 2021) Andueza Unanua, Ángel María; Pinto Fuste, Cristina Leyre; Navajas Hernández, David; Sevilla Moróder, Joaquín; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa, Elektronikoaren eta Telekomunikazio Ingeniaritzaren; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC; Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y de Comunicación; Gobierno de Navarra / Nafarroako Gobernua
Photovoltaic module temperature is a detrimental parameter influencing the energy yield and the durability of photovoltaic systems. Among the passive strategies to reduce the operating temperature of solar cells, radiative cooling is receiving a lot of attention, as an effective mean to passively evacuate heat in systems. The existence of a wavelength window of atmospheric transparency (8–13 μm) allows sending heat to outer space. The functionalization of the glass that could help to limit or reduce the temperature of the solar cells is an interesting approach. In this paper, we explore the effect of glass surface patterns in its radiation performance, so that the radiation cooling effect could be enhanced. The study is based on numerical simulations, calculating the spectral emissivity of different geometrical configurations of structures on top of the glass. Different geometrical figures of micrometers in size have been tested to find an optimal emissivity response in the transparent atmospheric window. Periodical patterns based on cones, pyramids, or moth-eye shapes result in emissivity responses close to one along thermal wavelengths (8–25 μm) which increases the emitted power of the glass. However, when assessing the cooling power under sunlight, the evaluation wavelength band has to be expanded (0.3–25 μm). Here, we found that not all geometrical figures are effective for radiative cooling. Surfaces textured by holes and pyramids show a substantial cooling effect, providing an increase in cooling power over the flat glass ranging from 40 W/m2 to 110 W/m2 depending on the temperature of the solar devices.
Open Access
Spectrally stable thermal emitters enabled by material-based high-impedance surfaces
(Royal Society of Chemistry, 2023) Navajas Hernández, David; Pérez Escudero, José Manuel; Liberal Olleta, Íñigo; Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y de Comunicación; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa, Elektronikoaren eta Telekomunikazio Ingeniaritzaren
Radiative thermal engineering with subwavelength metallic bodies is a key element for heat and energy management applications, communication and sensing. Here, we numerically and experimentally demonstrate metallic thermal emitters with narrowband but extremely stable emission spectra, whose resonant frequency does not shift with changes on the nanofilm thickness, the angle of observation and/or polarization. Our devices are based on epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) substrates acting as material-based high-impedance substrates. They do not require from complex nanofabrication processes, thus being compatible with large-area and low-cost applications.
Open Access
Narrowband and spectrally robust thermal emission from metallic thin films on top of epsilon-near-zero substrates
(IEEE, 2022) Navajas Hernández, David; Pérez Escudero, José Manuel; Liberal Olleta, Íñigo; Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y de Comunicación; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC; Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa, Elektronikoaren eta Telekomunikazio Ingeniaritzaren
The absorption and emission of infrared radiation by ultra-thin metallic films is a key element in several thermal engineering applications such as heat and energy management, and thermal camouflage. However, ultra-thin metallic films are broadband and low-efficiency emitters. Here, we demonstrate numerically and experimentally that metallic films placed on top of epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) substrates become narrowband and efficient thermal emitters. Our experiments show that ENZ-based emitters feature a narrow linewidth whose frequency positioning is robust against variations in the geometry of the system and the observation angle. Moreover, since ENZ emitters are based on the material properties of the substrate, no nanofabrication processes are needed, opening the pathway towards widefield and large-scale applications.