Optical transparency of ZnO thin film using localized surface plasmons of Ag nanoislands

Structural, morphological and optical properties of Ag–AgO thin films with the effect of increasing film thickness and annealing temperature

“…The further annealing process decreases the surface coverage as a consequence of increased vertical height with a small increase in the average lateral size of particles leading to a blue shift of SPR. At higher annealing temperature, additional redshift and broadening observed because the clusters accentuate the non-spherical shape, with progressive modification of the geometrical factor [37].…”

“…For the purpose of illustration, the theoretical spectra of absorption of Ag films are calculated based on thickness, particle shape, size and inter particle distance obtained from AFM analysis with the help of standard thin film formula [39]. The optical properties of Ag/glass multilayer system is described by effective complex dielectric constant (E eff ) as defined in generalized Extended Maxwell Garnett (EMG) theory by using the equation [37].…”

“…And it is obvious that the thickness of Ag film is equivalent to the height of the NPs. The geometrical factor of Ag NPs of oblate shape is defined as [37],…”

“…In the presence of surrounding medium such as air and glass substrate, the effective refractive index (n eff ) and extinction coefficient (k eff ) of Ag NPs can be obtained from MG theory and given by [37,41], …”

Localized surface plasmon induced enhancement of electron-hole generation with silver metal island at n-Al:ZnO/p-Cu2O heterojunction

“…2,4,5,7 Solar energy stored in metal nanoislands can also be transferred to semiconductor through resonant energy transfer or surface plasmon resonance mediated local electromagnetic field (LEMF). [7][8][9][10] Noble metal nanoislands like silver or gold can efficiently be used to enhance light absorption in solar photovoltaic cells through hot electron generation, resonance energy transfer, and surface plasmon resonance mediated local electromagnetic field. 2,3,[7][8][9] ZnO is a very useful, vividly studied natural n-type semiconductor with direct band gap 3.39 eV.…”