<p>The optical efficiency of a commercially available sputter deposited spectrally selective solar absorber was improved. The main purposes were to decrease the thermal emittance, increase the solar absorbtance of the absorber and to protect the substrate from degradation due to environmental influence. The adhesion properties between the corrosion-protecting barrier and the substrate were also studied. This project was focused on process improvements that are realistic to implement in industrial production.</p><p>The thermal emittance of the absorber was decreased from 0.12 to 0.06 by changing the material of the corrosion-protecting layer from nickel-chromium to copper-nickel. Copper-nickel was less sensitive to variations in the sputter parameters than nickel-chromium. A novel method that could simplify the search for alternative corrosion resistant materials with a low thermal emittance has been purposed. Since resistivity data usually exist or can easily be measured and infrared measurements require more sophisticated measurements, the Hagen-Rubens relation was investigated for copper-nickel and nickel-chromium alloys. The dc-resistivity was found to be related to the infrared emittance or the integrated thermal emittance for alloys in their solid soluble fcc phase.</p><p>The solar absorbtance was increased when a graded index absorbing coating was tailored for a crossover of the reflectance from low to high reflectance at about 2.5 µm. The solar absorber graded index coating was optimized for nickel metal content in nickel oxide and a solar absorptance of 0.89-0.91 was achieved. The solar absorptance was further increased to 0.97 when an antireflection coating was added on top of the absorbing layer.</p><p>Finally, extrapolation algorithms were developed to assure correct determination of the thermal emittance for coatings on glass since modern spectrometers that do not cover the complete wavelength interval required to calculate the thermal emittance of surfaces at room temperatures accurately. The error arising from the extrapolation algorithms were smaller than the noise from the optical measurements. Similar strategies can be used for other surfaces.</p>

The optical efficiency of a commercially available sputter deposited spectrally selective solar absorber was improved. The main purposes were to decrease the thermal emittance, increase the solar absorbtance of the absorber and to protect the substrate from degradation due to environmental influence. The adhesion properties between the corrosion-protecting barrier and the substrate were also studied. This project was focused on process improvements that are realistic to implement in industrial production. The thermal emittance of the absorber was decreased from 0.12 to 0.06 by changing the material of the corrosion-protecting layer from nickel-chromium to copper-nickel. Copper-nickel was less sensitive to variations in the sputter parameters than nickel-chromium. A novel method that could simplify the search for alternative corrosion resistant materials with a low thermal emittance has been purposed. Since resistivity data usually exist or can easily be measured and infrared measurements require more sophisticated measurements, the Hagen-Rubens relation was investigated for copper-nickel and nickel-chromium alloys. The dc-resistivity was found to be related to the infrared emittance or the integrated thermal emittance for alloys in their solid soluble fcc phase. The solar absorbtance was increased when a graded index absorbing coating was tailored for a crossover of the reflectance from low to high reflectance at about 2.5 µm. The solar absorber graded index coating was optimized for nickel metal content in nickel oxide and a solar absorptance of 0.89-0.91 was achieved. The solar absorptance was further increased to 0.97 when an antireflection coating was added on top of the absorbing layer. Finally, extrapolation algorithms were developed to assure correct determination of the thermal emittance for coatings on glass since modern spectrometers that do not cover the complete wavelength interval required to calculate the thermal emittance of surfaces at room temperatures accurately. The error arising from the extrapolation algorithms were smaller than the noise from the optical measurements. Similar strategies can be used for other surfaces.