Plasmonic tuning of gold doped thin films for layers of photovoltaic devices

Abstract

In order to increase the absorption rates in solar cells, increasing research activities on the plasmonic nanostructures are followed carefully. The plasmonic nanoparticles provides an important enhancement in the trapping of photons in the active layer of the solar cells by means of interaction between incident light and plasmonic nanoparticles. In order to obtain this approach, under of 5×10−4 mbar and 1×10−2 mbar ambient argon gas pressure, gold thin film was deposited on the silicon substrate by applying PLD system. The morphology of thin films obtained was investigated by AFM and SEM considering the effect of Ar gas pressure on the plasma plume. SPR peaks for Au nanoparticles deposited under 5×10−4 mbar and 1×10−2 mbar Ar gas pressure were observed at 756 nm and 658 nm wavelengths respectively. It has been stated that the SPR peak in the infrared is depend on the near field interaction between Au nanoparticles. Furthermore, when the pressure is increased to 1×10−2 mbar Ar, it has been observed that the SPR peak for thin film is shifted towards to shorter wavelengths, and it has also been observed that the intensity of absorption peak is decreased.