The synthesis and some optical absorption investigation of the dual combined glass/FTO/a-Si/Au NPs/Au NPs@TiO2 plasmonic structure

• Published in: Journal of materials science. Materials in electronics Vol. 34; no. 4; p. 282
• Main Authors: Dao, Khac An, Nguyen, Tien Thanh, Chung, Nguyen Xuan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.02.2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Absorption spectra; Anatase; Annealing; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Configurations; Crystallization; Glass substrates; Materials Science; Optical and Electronic Materials; Optical measurement; Photovoltaic cells; Plasmonics; Resonance; Silicon; Sol-gel processes; Solar cells; Synthesis; Thickness; Titanium dioxide
• ISSN: 0957-4522; 1573-482X
• DOI: 10.1007/s10854-022-09676-7

This paper reports the synthesis method by sputtered technique for Silicon and Au different thicknesses layers onto glass/FTO substrate, after that the thermal annealing, and then using sol–gel method producing AuNPs@TiO 2 plasmonic structure to produce four sample groups: Glass/FTO/AuNPs; glass/FTO/AuNPs/AuNPs@TiO 2 , glass/FTO/a-Si/AuNPs, and dual combined glass/FTO/a-Si/Au NPs/AuNPs@TiO 2 configurations. After thermal annealing, the sputtered Si layer on glass/FTO has amorphous phase (a-Si), sputtered Au layer has crystallized phase in (111) direction and TiO 2 has anatase phase. Some optical measurements have investigated such as the transmission, reflection and the absorption measurements were carried out for different sample groups in comparison for choosing the sample group having the highest optical absorption spectrum aiming for application in the modified plasmonic solar cell. The optical absorption of the dual combined glass/FTO/a-Si/AuNPs/AuNPs@TiO 2 configuration were significantly enhanced in ultraviolet, visible and near infrared regions with plasmonic resonance peaks shifted depending on Au NPs sizes and a-Si layer thicknesses. This result can be explained by the effects of the dual combined plasmonic structure where the partial /a-Si/Au NPs plasmonic structure has plasmonic resonance around 610 nm with enhanced tail cover to 800 nm, and the partial AuNPs@TiO 2 plasmonic structure has plasmonic resonance around 510 nm. The dual combined glass/FTO/a–Si/Au NPs/Au NPs@TiO 2 configuration with enhanced absorption spectrum in a wide range that is proposed for applying in the modified plasmonic solar cell for performance enhancement.