Optical and water repellant properties of Ag/SnO2 bilayer thin films

Abstract

The optical and water repellant properties of single layer and bilayer films of Ag and SnO2 deposited on glass substrates by thermal evaporation have been reported. Ag/SnO2 bilayers were deposited in two sequences wherein the deposition of SnO2 layer was followed by Ag deposition and vice versa. X-ray diffraction studies show that the Ag films crystallize in the FCC structure and SnO2 is amorphous, while atomic force microscopy images indicate the formation of large clusters of the order of 12 nm. The single layer Ag films exhibit localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) that shifts from visible region to the infrared with increase in thickness from 5 to 12 nm. It is observed that, only the Ag films of thickness ≤ 8 nm exhibits LSPR peak whereas the critical thickness is 5 nm for Ag/SnO2 films. A blue shift is observed in the LSPR peak position when the SnO2 layer caps the Ag film. Whereas, the LSPR of Ag is suppressed significantly when the SnO2 layer is introduced between the glass and the Ag film and also when Ag and SnO2 were co-evaporated. Water repellant properties indicate that the pure Ag film has an average contact angle of 104o which decreases to 100o when SnO2 caps the Ag layer and 97o when Ag is deposited on top of the SnO2 buffer layer. Co-evaporated Ag-SnO2 films show a contact angle of 93o.