Enhancement of the optical performance of ZnO thin-film using metallic nano-particles for optoelectronic applications

In this paper, versatile structures based on dissimilar metallic nano-particles (Ag, Au, Ti, Al) are proposed to enhance the ZnO thin film optical performance for both optoelectronic and environment monitoring applications. An Exhaustive study of the proposed structure including metallic nano-particles has been performed numerically, in order to evaluate the optical behavior of the proposed ZnO thin films against the conventional design for optoelectronic applications. The numerical computations reveal that the proposed design exhibits an outstanding capability in improving the overall device optical parameters. In addition, the proposed device with Al metallic nano-particles offers superior absorbance as well as lower reflectance as compared to the conventional design. These achievements can be attributed essentially to the localized surface plasma resonance phenomenon and the improved light trapping capability resulted from the optical confinement effect. The recorded results signify the crucial role of the proposed feature in improving the ZnO thin films optical performance, which makes it very promising to be used in the future high performance optoelectronic devices.