Metal nano-particles sizing by thermal annealing for the enhancement of surface plasmon effects in thin-film solar cells application

The optical properties and surface plasmon effects of different thickness of silver film grown on a silicon substrate were experimentally and numerically investigated. By modifying the film thickness and the annealing temperature, the size of metal nanoparticles (MNPs) can be manipulated. The reflectance of silver film deposited onto silicon wafers were adjusted by controlling the film thickness and annealing temperature. The experimental results show the MNPs grew larger with thinner deposition of silver film, and this has a correlation to the reflectance. We found that the thermal annealing temperature affects the optical properties of the MNPs, and this enhances the E-field intensity on the MNPs, and contributes to the improvement in the conversion efficiency of solar cells. This paper describes our attempts to develop a simple method that can replace the previously reported processes of lithography and thermal vacuum evaporation of the silver film and MNPs preparation.