Ambiance-dependent agglomeration and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy response of self-assembled silver nanoparticles for plasmonic photovoltaic devices

Jephias Gwamuri; Ragavendran Venkatesan; Mehdi Sadatgol; Jeyanthinath Mayandi; Durdu O. Guney; Joshua M. Pearce

doi:10.1117/1.JPE.7.037002

20 September 2017 Ambiance-dependent agglomeration and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy response of self-assembled silver nanoparticles for plasmonic photovoltaic devices

Jephias Gwamuri, Ragavendran Venkatesan, Mehdi Sadatgol, Jeyanthinath Mayandi, Durdu O. Guney, Joshua M. Pearce

Author Affiliations +

Journal of Photonics for Energy, Vol. 7, Issue 3, 037002 (September 2017). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JPE.7.037002

Abstract

The agglomeration/dewetting process of thin silver films provides a scalable method of obtaining self-assembled nanoparticles (SANPs) for plasmonics-based thin-film solar photovoltaic (PV) devices. We show the effect of annealing ambiance on silver SANP average size, particle/cluster finite shape, substrate area coverage/particle distribution, and how these physical parameters influence optical properties and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) responses of SANPs. Statistical analysis performed indicates that generally Ag SANPs processed in the presence of a gas (argon and nitrogen) ambiance tend to have smaller average size particles compared to those processed under vacuum. Optical properties are observed to be highly dependent on particle size, separation distance, and finite shape. The greatest SERS enhancement was observed for the argon-processed samples. There is a correlation between simulation and experimental data that indicate argon-processed AgNPs have a great potential to enhance light coupling when integrated to thin-film PV.

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Jephias Gwamuri, Ragavendran Venkatesan, Mehdi Sadatgol, Jeyanthinath Mayandi, Durdu O. Guney, and Joshua M. Pearce "Ambiance-dependent agglomeration and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy response of self-assembled silver nanoparticles for plasmonic photovoltaic devices," Journal of Photonics for Energy 7(3), 037002 (20 September 2017). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JPE.7.037002

Received: 29 May 2017; Accepted: 25 August 2017; Published: 20 September 2017

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