Ag and Sn Nanoparticles to Enhance the Near-Infrared Absorbance of a-Si:H Thin Films

作者：Gaspar D; Pimentel A C; Mendes M J; Mateus T; Falcao B P; Leitao J P; Soares J; Araujo A; Vicente A; Filonovich S A; Aguas H; Martins R; Ferreira I^*

来源：Plasmonics, 2014, 9(5): 1015-1023.

DOI：10.1007/s11468-014-9709-0

• Surface plasmons
• Silver and tin nanoparticles
• Light trapping
• a-Si:H

Silver (Ag) and tin (Sn) nanoparticles (NPs) were deposited by thermal evaporation onto heated glass substrates with a good control of size, shape and surface coverage. This process has the advantage of allowing the fabrication of thin-film solar cells with incorporated NPs without vacuum break, since it does not require chemical processes or post-deposition annealing. The X-ray diffraction, TEM and SEM properties are correlated with optical measurements and amorphous silicon hydrogenated (a-Si:H) films deposited on top of both types of NPs show enhanced absorbance in the near-infrared. The results are interpreted with electromagnetic modelling performed with Mie theory. A broad emission in the near-infrared region is considerably increased after covering the Ag nanoparticles with an a-Si:H layer. Such effect may be of interest for possible down-conversion mechanisms in novel photovoltaic devices.

• 出版日期2014-10