Texturisation of multicrystalline silicon solar cells by RIE and plasma etching

Nositschka, W.A.; Voigt, O.; Manshanden, P.; Kurz, H.

doi:10.1016/j.solmat.2003.06.003

Cited by 53 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…While RIE is usually detrimental for the electrical performance of a photovoltaic absorber layer, [ 15 ] we observe that nanotexturing leads to an improvement in opencircuit voltage ( V oc ) as seen in the currentvoltage ( J -V ) characteristics measured under 1-sun in Figure 2 a. The V oc increases from the initial 615 mV to 740 mV after 2 min RIE and saturates at 770 mV for etching times equal or longer than 10 min.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 69%

Enhanced Near‐Bandgap Response in InP Nanopillar Solar Cells

Battaglia

Zheng

et al. 2014

Advanced Energy Materials

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the performance of photocathodes for solar hydrogen production. [ 9 ] Compared to a planar reference, the implementation of nanopillars improved both photocurrent and onset potential, but the exact mechanism for this improvement remained unclear.Here we investigate the effect of nanopillar texturing on the performance of InP solar cells. On the optical level, nanopillars minimize the refl ectance over a broad spectral range. Mapping the current generated by an electron beam across the cell cross-section, we further show that texturing increases the effective minority carrier collection length leading to improved photocurrent and open-circuit voltage and a power conversion effi ciency of 14.4%. Results and DiscussionNanopillars are fabricated via maskless, lithography-free reactive ion etching (RIE). The entire device fabrication avoids the use of expensive metal-organic precursor gases necessary for the fabrication of III-V solar cells via traditional chemical vapor deposition. In addition, we recently introduced a thinfi lm vapor-liquid-solid growth technique for the growth of high-quality InP thin fi lms (1-3 µm) on cheap non-epitaxial substrates, [ 10 ] enabling future elimination of the thick (350 µm) expensive InP wafers used in this work which, together with the precursor gases, represent the dominant cost drivers for III-V photovoltaics. [ 11 ] A sketch of the fabrication fl ow is shown in Figure 1 a. Zndoped p-type InP wafers with a carrier density of 3 × 10 17 cm −3 are etched in hydrochloric (HCl) acid (6%) for 30 s to remove the native oxide. An ohmic backcontact is formed by sputtering a thin layer of Zn (20 nm) capped with a Au layer (100 nm) and subsequent annealing at 420 °C in forming gas (H 2 :N 2 = 5%) for 45 min. The front side is wet etched again in HCl (6%) and dry etched in a H 2 :CH 4 :Ar plasma (40 sccm: 10 sccm: 10 sccm) at a pressure of 110 mTorr, a power density of 0.5 W cm −2 and a bias voltage of 500-550 V to form the nanopillars. Following oxidation in a O 2 plasma [ 12 ] and etching in HCl (3%) for 30 s to remove undesired metallic indium residues and the defective InP layer (see discussion below) formed during the RIE process at the pillar surface, a conformal transparent conductive indium tin oxide electrode (ITO, In 2 O 3 :SnO = 90%:10%, 35 nm) is deposited by RF sputtering at room temperature atThe effect of nanopillar texturing on the performance of InP solar cells is investigated. Maskless, lithography-free reactive ion etching of InP nanopillars improves the open-circuit voltage, reduces refl ectance over a broad spectral range, and enhances the near-bandgap response compared to a fl at, non-textured cell with comparable refl ectance in the infrared. Electron-beam induced current measurements indicate an increased effective minority carrier collection length. The response at short wavelengths decreases due to the formation of a defective surface layer with strong non-radiative recombination. Plasma oxidation and wet etching partially restore the blue response resulting in a ...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 69%

Enhanced Near‐Bandgap Response in InP Nanopillar Solar Cells

Battaglia

Zheng

et al. 2014

Advanced Energy Materials

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“…Such kind of etching was predominantly by chemical reaction, therefore the surface damage was much lower than ion bombardment damage of other reactive ion etching processes [14][15][16][17][18]. In order to evaluate the impact of the texturing process, the total (specular and diffuse) hemispherical reflectance and microstructure were measured after etching using a Varian Cary 500UV-VIS-NIR spectrophotometer and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) respectively.…”

Section: /[272]mentioning

confidence: 99%

Improved Reflectance for Textured Mc-Silicon Solar Cells by SF₆/O₂ Plasma Etching

Tao

Zhou

Zhao³

et al. 2011

Integrated Ferroelectrics

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On account of enhancing surface light trapping by reducing reflectance, front surface texturiing is always a key to improve the solar cells performance. As a maskless plasma texturing technique, reactive ion etching using SF 6 /O 2 plasma brings down reflectance distinctly by fluorine ions etching the surface of mc-silicon solar cells with the assisting of O 2 . The textured surface with bowl-like nanostructure exhibits fine anti-reflectance effect. Optimal reflectance of mc-silicon solar cells could be obtained by adjusting gases flow ratios, plasma power and etching time.

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“…Especially challenging is the development of subwavelength structures for optoelectronic applications. The mechanical V-texture method, 1 laser processing, 2 electron-beam lithography and fast-atom beam etching, 3 reactive-ion etching (RIE), 4 and electron cyclotron resonance plasma etching 5 need sophisticated and expensive equipment, while newer techniques such as selfmasking damage-free RIE are promising 6 but are not yet ready for large-scale use.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Metal-Assisted Chemical Etching Using Tollen’s Reagent to Deposit Silver Nanoparticle Catalysts for Fabrication of Quasi-ordered Silicon Micro/Nanostructures

Geng

Zhao

et al. 2011

Journal of Elec Materi

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Metal-assisted chemical etching (MacEtch) of semiconductor materials in HF/H 2 O 2 solution using noble-metal particles as catalysts has gained much attention in the past few years due to its unique properties. In this work, nanoscale Ag particles were deposited on (100) and (111) surfaces of polished p-Si wafers through the silver-mirror reaction. Subsequently these wafers were etched in 1:1:1 (v:v:v) HF(49%):H 2 O 2 (30%):EtOH solution at ambient temperature and pressure for 12 h, producing a number of different quasiordered silicon micro/nanostructures. The resulting surface-modified wafers exhibited mixed micro-and nanostructures that are an inherent feature of the etch process; for example, steps appear on the sidewalls of crystallographically defined nanopores, because the catalytic Ag nanoparticles are convected as they transit the developing pore during the etching process. The resulting materials exhibited much reduced reflectivity, reaching a maximum of 3.79 reduction near 330 nm, which renders them of interest in potential applications such as back-reflector templates for deposition of thin-film solar cell materials.

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Texturisation of multicrystalline silicon solar cells by RIE and plasma etching

Cited by 53 publications

References 5 publications

Enhanced Near‐Bandgap Response in InP Nanopillar Solar Cells

Enhanced Near‐Bandgap Response in InP Nanopillar Solar Cells

Improved Reflectance for Textured Mc-Silicon Solar Cells by SF₆/O₂ Plasma Etching

Metal-Assisted Chemical Etching Using Tollen’s Reagent to Deposit Silver Nanoparticle Catalysts for Fabrication of Quasi-ordered Silicon Micro/Nanostructures

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Texturisation of multicrystalline silicon solar cells by RIE and plasma etching

Cited by 53 publications

References 5 publications

Enhanced Near‐Bandgap Response in InP Nanopillar Solar Cells

Enhanced Near‐Bandgap Response in InP Nanopillar Solar Cells

Improved Reflectance for Textured Mc-Silicon Solar Cells by SF6/O2 Plasma Etching

Metal-Assisted Chemical Etching Using Tollen’s Reagent to Deposit Silver Nanoparticle Catalysts for Fabrication of Quasi-ordered Silicon Micro/Nanostructures

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Improved Reflectance for Textured Mc-Silicon Solar Cells by SF₆/O₂ Plasma Etching