Antireflection properties and solar cell application of silicon nanostructures

Silicon nanowire (Si NW) arrays were fabricated on polished and pyramids textured mono-crystalline Si (mc-Si) using an aqueous chemical etching method. The Si NWs and a hybrid texture of NWs and pyramids both show strong anti-reflectance properties in the wavelength region of 300–1000 nm, with the minimum average reflectance of 2.52% and 8%, respectively. The above two nanostructures were fabricated on mc-Si solar cells with the area of 125×125 mm2. Then the influences of Si NWs and hybrid textures on the performances of mc-Si solar cells created using different fabrication processes were analyzed by internal quantum efficiency measurement and by systematical comparisons of efficiency, filling factor, open circuit voltage and short-circuit current. Passivation is found to be essential for the hybrid textured solar cells, and the average open circuit voltage can be improved by 7% after a passivation layer was deposited. The short circuit current could be increased when Si NWs were fabricated on a substrate...

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