Effect of surface type on structural and optical properties of Ag nanoparticles formed by dewetting

Abstract

Integration of an array of Ag nanoparticles in solar cells is expected to increase light trapping through field enhancement and plasmonic scattering. Requirement of Ag nanoparticle decoration of cell surfaces or interfaces at the macro-scale, calls for a self-organized fabrication method such as thermal dewetting. Optical properties of a 2D array of Ag nanoparticles are known to be very sensitive to their shape and size. We show that these parameters depend on the type of the substrate used. We observe that the average nanoparticle size decreases with increasing substrate thermal conductivity and nanoparticle size distribution broadens with increasing surface roughness.

Scattering analysis of silver nanoparticles for solar cell applications using integral equations

“…In this work, an accurate analysis of scattering from the silver NPs fabricated on an ITO substrate is carried out using a PMCHWT-SIE solver. Computed SCS-R is in good comparison with the measured reflection of the NPs as described in [9]. This clearly shows that electromagnetic interactions between the substrate and multiple particles have to be taken into account to obtain accurate results.…”

“…1 shows the mesh discretizing the hemispheres and the substrate from top. This specific simulation model is inspired by the experimental setup, as described in [9], where reflection spectrum of the NPs is measured. In the simulations, as a measure of reflection, SCS is computed over the solid angle with theta spanning from 0 0 to 90 0 (hemisphere "sitting" at the top of the substrate).…”

“…The measured reflection of the silver NPs on ITO is provided in Fig. 2 in [9]. It has a single peak around 600 nm.…”

Morphology and optical properties of sputter deposited silver nanoparticles on plain, textured and antireflection layer coated textured silicon

“…deposition with different power sources. Noble metal NPs can be fabricated by using different techniques like e-beam lithography, sputtering, evaporation methods and also by simple chemical routes [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. Sputtering (ions collision dislodges particles from the target material) is one of the most popular methods of physical vapor deposition (PVD) for the large area uniform deposition, and it is viable integration tool for any large area plasmonics based device fabrication.…”

Advanced light trapping interface for a‐Si:H thin film

“…Metal nanoparticles are characterized by localized surface plasmons which make them an attractive lighttrapping approach to achieve higher absorption of light into the semiconductor. Localized surface plasmons are the collective oscillations of the electrons localized in the conduction band of the metal upon light excitation [21][22][23][24]. These electrons oscillate with a resonance frequency known as localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) represented by a maximum in the reflectance spectra [23].…”