Analysis of the optical characteristics of dendritic Ag nanostructures on $c$-Si by spectroscopic ellipsometry

Dendritic silver nanostructures of different morphologies and heights from 210 to 1030 nm were obtained on the surfaces of silicon substrates using the method of chemical deposition from an AgNO$_3$ + HF solution. The Bruggeman, Tauc–Lorentz, Gauss and Drude models were used to analyze optical properties, layer thickness and filling factor when interpreting experimental ellipsometric data. As a result, good convergence of the experimental and calculated spectra of the real $\langle\varepsilon_1\rangle$ and imaginary $\langle\varepsilon_2\rangle$ parts of the complex pseudo-dielectric function $\langle\varepsilon\rangle$ was obtained.