If It's about absorbing all types of radiations then relative literature can be studied as suggested by Peetam Mandal.
In case of reflection of different kinds of radiations, considerable work has been reported (and still in progress) on liquid crystals where selective reflection or transmittance can be carried out through controlling orientation of liquid crystal molecules by application of voltage.
This challenge is so hard. Because the whole part of sun waves arrives to earth around 530nm(49℅ of waves). Now, if you can fabricate a structure that be able to absorb 530nm, you can save 49℅ of irraditions in the best condition. So, it seems that the consideration of the entire solar spectrum is not good.
Recently, I had an experience in this field, we used the water of walnut skin (green skin). The results were very good . The UV test shows that water of walnut skin exactly absorbs 530nm spectrum.
It depends what you are going to do with the energy you absorb. It is easy to turn it into random thermal motion - heat - but not possible because of quantum mechanics to turn it into a vectored field like an electrical charge in a PV system.
Check the term black silicon. There are silicon nanostructures that can absorb all the visible rang and make the surface super black. It is only geometrical effect. https://www.nature.com/articles/nnano.2015.89
Fabricate some nanostructure that may absorb the ''entire solar spectrum'' is a hard challenge. However, it's possible to manufacture nanostructures that may absorb a wide range of the solar spectrum. For example, Koran Aydin et al (doi:10.1038/ncomms1528) recently designed a solar super absorbent material which takes advantage of a phenomenon called optical resonance. Just as a radio antenna resonates with certain radio waves and absorbs them, the nanostructured optical antennas can resonate and absorb visible and infrared light. The length of the structure determines the wavelength of light with which to resonate. Therefore, Koran Aydin et al designed structures with many different lengths: they were shaped into a pointed wedge and a wide base. Thin and nanoscale wedges strongly absorb blue light at the tip and red light at the base.This super absorbent material yields broadband and polarization-independent resonant light absorption over the entire visible spectrum (400–700 nm) with an average measured absorption of 71% and simulated absorption of 85% (FDTD simulations).
I believe that this design is promising, since it works in a wide spectrum band. However, the designs will have to be applied to other materials to be applicable in solar cells based on resonant absorption.
Hybrid perovskite materials CH3NH3PbI3 and CsPbI3 are able to absorb light from 400 to 800nm. These materials are used for solar cell, photo-detectors and LED applications.
What do you intend to do with the energy you absorb? That is a very important point - do you just want to convert it to heat or do you want to turn it into electricity for example?
Very interesting question and answers. But A question arise then how a material can be so selective over large range. What kind of these materials by structure, composition etc
I agree and recommend the answers stated above by Sasha Hoshian, Carlos J. Fernández-Rojas , Rajan K. Singh , and Chaminda Hettiarachchi , these should answer the asked question.
Black colored metal oxides have the capability to absorb the complete visible and near infra-red light that leads to its efficient application in photocatalysis. Frequently used methods to prepare black TiO2 involve oxidation of low valence Ti compounds, low/high pressure reduction of TiO2 and many more. Black colored metal oxide by hydrogenation offers a cost effective method to improve the visible light activity.
Thanks for the question and discussion. Not an expert in this field. Looks like an area for continued research that may have surprising results over time. I would think that stacked monolayers on a substrate structure would give some ideas. The process to be considered is how do you get the energy in the absorbed electron state into the form you want. There are quenching and other transition processes (phonons) that mess up things. Can nanotubes ve used as a lossless election conductor from the absorbing structures into a battery?
What if each layer were insulated (third dimension would be current flow)? Pure silicon crystals allow total internal reflection along grazing angle in the xray range. I could imagine that larger structures of carbon with a photocenter to catch a different wavelength could be stacked. This of course is not perpendicular incidence, but nearer parallel.
From the conceptual point of view black bodies are capable to absorb the solar radiation. There some structures that appraoch the black body behavior which is the black silicon. The silicon is provided with arrays of nanowires at its surface such that it looks black out. Please see the link:https://www.pv-tech.org/guest-blog/black-silicon-theres-more-than-meets-the-eye
Ian Mathews etal, “Theoretical performance of multi-junction solar cells combining III-V and Si materials”, OPTICS EXPRESS, Vol. 20, No. S5 (2012) , A764
Sabina Abdul Hadi, Eugene A. Fitzgerald, and Ammar Nayfeh, "Theoretical efficiency limit for a two-terminal multi-junction “step-cell” using detailed balance method", Journal of Applied Physics 119, 073104 (2016);
@ https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4942223
Fahhad H.Alharbia & Sabre Kaisab, “Theoretical limits of photovoltaics efficiency and possible improvements by intuitive approaches learned from photosynthesis and quantum coherence”, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Volume 43, (2015) , Pages 1073-1089