Catalytic metamaterial absorber-emitter, devices and methods of fabrication and applications thereof

A metamaterial structure for catalytic applications wherein the metamaterial structure is a metasurface that comprises:

• a rigid or flexible dielectric or metallic substrate;
• (thickness >0.5 mm, material);
• a thin metallic or semiconductor layer, which is optically reflective, is layered upon the dielectric or metallic substrate;
• a periodic ensemble of materials-based elements, layered upon the metallic or dielectric layer, where the element(s) has(have) a defined geometric construct(s) that results in a specific nano-array;
• wherein the individual array elements in the nano-array are appropriately configured, in terms of composition, shape, relative distribution and areal density, so as to result in an engineered effective refractive index, for the entire/composite metasurface structure, that matches the refractive index of the medium adjacent to the metasurface;
• wherein the individual array elements are distributed so that they can have plasmonic interactions through the edges and corners of their geometries;
• wherein the nano-array is also appropriately configured so as to result in an engineered metasurface that exhibits near-unity optical electromagnetic absorption (impedance matching) of light ranging over a broadband of wavelengths, wide range of incident angles, and range of electromagnetic polarization;
• and/or near unity thermal associated narrowband emission;
• wherein the metasurface configuration permits both electrical and thermal transport between the nano-array and the underlying metallic layer;
• and
• wherein the selected materials comprising the metasurface are selected for driving specific catalytic reactions in an electronic and/or thermal approach.