Silver Nanoparticles Textured Oxide Thin Films for Surface Plasmon Enhanced Photovoltaic Properties

Abstract In this report, Ag nanoparticles were fabricated using single-step glancing angle deposition (SS-GLAD) technique upon In2O3/TiO2 thin film. Afterwards, a detailed analysis was done for the two samples such as In2O3/TiO2 thin film and In2O3/TiO2 thin film/Ag nanoparticles, to inspect the field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), ultraviolet (UV) spectroscopy and electrical properties. The reduction in bandgap energy for the samples of In2O3/TiO2 thin film/Ag nanoparticles (~ 4.16 eV) in comparison with the In2O3/TiO2 thin film (~ 4.28 eV) was due to trapped e-h recombination at the oxygen vacancies and electron transmission of Ag to the conduction band of the In2O3/TiO2 thin films. Moreover, under irradiation of photons Ag nanoparticles generated inorganic Ag-O compound attributable to the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR). Also, a ~ 90% high transmittance, ~ 60% and ~ 25% low reflectance in UV and visible region, fill factor (FF) of 53%, as well as power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 15.12% was observed for In2O3/TiO2 thin film/Ag nanoparticles than the In2O3/TiO2 thin film. Therefore, the use of Ag nanoparticles textured In2O3/TiO2 thin film based device is a promising approach for the forthcoming photovoltaic applications.