Influence of Ag thickness on the structural,optical, and electrical properties of the SnS/Ag/SnS trilayer films for solar cell application

We fabricated the SnS/Ag/SnS (SAS) trilayer thin films by a sputtering method at 200 $°C$. The structural, optical, and electrical properties of the films were studied by varying the Ag interlayer thickness from 9 to 27 nm. The EDS analysis revealed that all SAS trilayer films showed an increase in the atomic percentage of Ag from 1.87 to 6.18. The X-ray diffraction studies confirmed that SAS films with Ag-18 nm thickness showed a preferred (111) peak of the SnS with improved crystallinity. The optical absorption coefficient of the SAS films increased by a factor of 18 when compared to the SnS films without Ag. Also, the optical band gap decreased from 1.53 to 1.28 eV with Ag thickness. All SAS films exhibited the p-type conductivity with increased hole-concentration from 1.94 $\times$ ${10}^{14}$ to 4.15 $\times$${10}^{18}$cm^?3 and also the mobility from 1.31 to 81.6 cm². V^?1s^?1.