Abstract
Metal nanoparticles attract the worldwide interest due to their interesting optical and electrical properties, which allow their implementation as promising light scatters in solar cell devices. These nanoparticles exhibit localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) characteristics, which are strongly dependent on both intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Tuning the LSPR characteristics yields to interesting properties in terms of enhancement, localization and guiding of the electromagnetic field on sub-wavelength scales. For that purpose, we investigate in this work the effect of dielectric spacer layer (tin oxide) with different thickness on light reflection due to random self-assembled Ag-NPs. A correlation between morphological properties, optical reflectance and electrical characteristics is established by combining scanning electron microscopy, UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy and current–voltage analyses. Our results show that a dielectric layer with an appropriate thickness and refractive index is useful for reducing the amount of reflected light and consequently the shifted photocurrent response for all wavelengths.