Optical Properties of ITO/Glass Substrates Modified by Silver Nanoparticles for PV Applications

The paper describes the research on optical properties of glass/ITO/Ag thin layers obtained on glass/ITO substrates with different properties. The authors will discuss the influence of silver particles and silver layer thickness on the transmission and reflection spectra of the layers and parameters, such as the width of the optical band gap, refractive index, and dieelectric function. For example, the presence of silver leads to a decrease in the transmission of the layers (compared to ITO/glass) regardless of the thickness of the silver layer, and in the case of reflection, both its increase and decrease were observed, depending on the thickness of the silver layer and the type of glass/ITO substrate used. The average transmission value in the visible region depends on the thickness of the silver nanoparticle layer and varies from similar to 50% to similar to 90%. The average refractive index takes values from the range similar to 1.4 to similar to 1.65 and does not depend on the presence and thickness of the silver layer.