Nanostructured ZnO as biomimetic anti-reflective coatings on textured silicon using a continuous solution process

Han, Seung-Yeol; Paul, Brian K.; Chang, Chia‐Chin

doi:10.1039/c2jm33462c

Cited by 33 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 48 publications

(54 reference statements)

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“…The results reveal that the lengths of nanowire decreased along the length of the flow cell, due to the depletion of precursors, morphology change from pyramidal tops to flat tops and the transition of growth mechanism from two-dimensional nuclei to spiral growth, as shown in Figure 3. Han et al reported the deposition of biomimetic nanostructured ZnO films using the MASD process, exhibiting anti-reflection on textured pyramidal silicon surfaces [25]. The pyramidal silicon substrate was prepared by a wet chemical etching process.…”

Section: Microreactor-assisted Solution Deposition (Masd)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Microreactor-Assisted Solution Deposition for Compound Semiconductor Thin Films

2014

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State-of-the-art techniques for the fabrication of compound semiconductors are mostly vacuum-based physical vapor or chemical vapor deposition processes. These vacuum-based techniques typically operate at high temperatures and normally require higher capital costs. Solution-based techniques offer opportunities to fabricate compound semiconductors at lower temperatures and lower capital costs. Among many solution-based deposition processes, chemical bath deposition is an attractive technique for depositing semiconductor films, owing to its low temperature, low cost and large area deposition capability. Chemical bath deposition processes are mainly performed using batch reactors, where all reactants are fed into the reactor simultaneously and products are removed after the processing is finished. Consequently, reaction selectivity is difficult, which can lead to unwanted secondary reactions. Microreactor-assisted solution deposition processes can overcome this limitation by producing short-life molecular intermediates used for heterogeneous thin film synthesis and quenching the reaction prior to homogeneous reactions. In this paper, we present progress in the synthesis and deposition of semiconductor thin films with a focus on CdS using microreactor-assisted solution deposition and provide an overview of its prospect for scale-up. OPEN ACCESSProcesses 2014, 2 442 IntroductionCompound semiconductors play an important role for generating, emitting and manipulating energy. State-of-the-art techniques for the fabrication of compound semiconductors are mostly vacuum-based physical vapor or chemical vapor deposition (CVD) processes. These vacuum-based techniques typically operate at high temperatures and normally require higher capital costs. Solution-based techniques offer opportunities to fabricate compound semiconductors at lower temperatures and lower capital costs. Other additional advantages of the solution-phase routes are the availability of large resources of synthetic strategies and the compatibility with soft organic materials. A variety of solution-based techniques, including electrodeposition, successive ionic-layer adsorption and reaction, spray pyrolysis and chemical bath deposition (CBD) have been developed for the fabrication of compound semiconductors [1-3]. Among these, CBD is an attractive technique owing to its low temperature, low cost and large area deposition capability [4,5]. Many semiconductor thin films have been successfully deposited using this technique, and it has already been proven to be a very useful method for fabricating large area devices, such as high efficiency CuInSe 2 and CdTe solar cells. CBD processes are mainly performed using batch reactors, where all reactants are fed into the reactor and products are removed after the processing is finished. These batch processes can suffer from slow heat and mass transfer, which can result in large temperature, concentration and solution pH gradients. Microreactor-assisted nanomaterial deposition (MAND) processes can overcome some of the li...

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Section: Microreactor-assisted Solution Deposition (Masd)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Microreactor-Assisted Solution Deposition for Compound Semiconductor Thin Films

2014

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“…On the basis of this idea, Han et al recently outlined an economical way for suppressing the surface reflection of a polished silicon wafer from 30% to 3% between 400 and 900 nm wavelength [32], as illustrated in Fig. 2.4.…”

Section: Refractive Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Aperiodic refractive microstructures in combination with motheye sub-wavelength textures can provide excellent anti-reflection properties according to B. Bläsi [34] (left image) and S. Han et al [32] (right image).…”

Section: Fig 24mentioning

confidence: 99%

Diffractive Optics for Thin-Film Silicon Solar Cells

Schuster¹

2017

Springer Theses

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Thin-film silicon solar cells have the potential to convert sunlight into electricity at high efficiency, low cost and without generating pollutants. However, they need to become more competitive with conventional energy technologies by increasing their efficiency.One of the key efficiency limitations of using thin silicon absorber materials relates to the optical loss of low-energy photons, because the absorption coefficient of silicon decreases strongly for these low-energy photons in the red and nearinfrared, such that the absorption length becomes longer than the absorber layer thickness. If, in contrast, the incident light was redirected and trapped into the plane of the silicon slab, a thin-film could absorb as much light as a thick layer.Diffractive textures can not only efficiently scatter the low-energy photons, but are also able to suppress the reflection of the incident sunlight. In order to take advantage of the full benefits that textures can offer, I outline a simple layer transfer technique that allows the structuring of a thin-film independently from both sides, and use absorption measurements to show that structuring on both sides is favourable compared to structuring on one side only. I also introduce a figure-of-merit that can objectively and quantitatively assess the benefit of the structuring itself, which allows me to benchmark state-ofthe-art proposals and to deduce some important design rules. Minimising the parasitic losses, for example, is of critical importance, as the desired scattering properties are directly proportional to these losses. To study the impact of parasitics, I quantify the useful absorption enhancement of two different light trapping mechanisms, i.e. diffractive vs plasmonic, based on a fair and simple experimental comparison. The experiment demonstrates that diffractive light-trapping is a better choice for photovoltaic applications, because plasmonic structures accumulate the parasitical losses by multiple interactions with the trapped light.

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“…The hydrothermal synthesis of ZnO nanostructures can be completed in 30 min. [21][22] In this study, to ensure the homogenous growth of the thin film and to decrease the possible amorphous layer on the surface, the hydrothermal processes were continued for up to 15 h.…”

Section: Synthesis Of the Bio-inspired Nanostructuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fish-scale bio-inspired multifunctional ZnO nanostructures

Sun

Liao

et al. 2015

NPG Asia Mater

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Scales provide optical disguise, low water drag and mechanical protection to fish, enabling them to survive catastrophic environmental disasters, predators and microorganisms. The unique structures and stacking sequences of fish scales inspired the fabrication of artificial nanostructures with salient optical, interfacial and mechanical properties. Herein, we describe fish-scale bio-inspired multifunctional ZnO nanostructures that have similar morphology and structure to the cycloid scales of the Asian Arowana. These nanostructured coatings feature tunable light refraction and reflection, modulated surface wettability and damage-tolerant mechanical properties. The salient properties of these multifunctional nanostructures are promising for applications in (i) optical coatings, sensing or lens arrays for use in reflective displays, packing, advertising and solar energy harvesting; (ii) self-cleaning surfaces, including anti-smudge, anti-fouling and anti-fogging, and self-sterilizing surfaces; and (iii) mechanical/chemical barrier coatings. This study provides a low-cost and large-scale production method for the facile fabrication of these bio-inspired nanostructures and provides new insights for the development of novel functional materials for use in 'smart' structures and applications.

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Nanostructured ZnO as biomimetic anti-reflective coatings on textured silicon using a continuous solution process

Cited by 33 publications

References 48 publications

Microreactor-Assisted Solution Deposition for Compound Semiconductor Thin Films

Microreactor-Assisted Solution Deposition for Compound Semiconductor Thin Films

Diffractive Optics for Thin-Film Silicon Solar Cells

Fish-scale bio-inspired multifunctional ZnO nanostructures

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