Plasmonic modes in molybdenum ultra-thin films suitable for hydrogenated amorphous silicon thin film solar cells

We have recently demonstrated that molybdenum ultra-thin films interposed between hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) and SnO2:F transparent conductive oxide (TCO) in thin film a-Si:H solar cells show light trapping effects which enhance the solar cells performances. The effect of this improvement may be attributed to surface plasmon polariton (SPP) modes excited at the molybdenum interface by the solar radiation. In this paper we show direct evidence of such SPP modes in the case of the molybdenum/air interface by using the attenuated total reflection (ATR) technique, pioneered by Kretschmann, and we evaluate the dielectric constant of molybdenum at 660 nm.