Efficient nanotextured black silicon solar cells passivated by an Al2O3 layer are demonstrated. The broadband antireflection of the nanotextured black silicon solar cells was provided by fabricating vertically aligned silicon nanowire (SiNW) arrays on the n(+) emitter. A highly conformal Al2O3 layer was deposited upon the SiNW arrays by the thermal atomic layer deposition (ALD) based on the multiple pulses scheme. The nanotextured black silicon wafer covered with the Al2O3 layer exhibited a low total reflectance of ∼1.5% in a broad spectrum from 400 to 800 nm. The Al2O3 passivation layer also contributes to the suppressed surface recombination, which was explored in terms of the chemical and field-effect passivation effects. An 8% increment of short-circuit current density and 10.3% enhancement of efficiency were achieved due to the ALD Al2O3 surface passivation and forming gas annealing. A high efficiency up to 18.2% was realized in the ALD Al2O3-passivated nanotextured black silicon solar cells.

Low-temperature epitaxial growth of AlN ultrathin films was realized by atomic layer deposition (ALD) together with the layer-by-layer, in-situ atomic layer annealing (ALA), instead of a high growth temperature which is needed in conventional epitaxial growth techniques. By applying the ALA with the Ar plasma treatment in each ALD cycle, the AlN thin film was converted dramatically from the amorphous phase to a single-crystalline epitaxial layer, at a low deposition temperature of 300 °C. The energy transferred from plasma not only provides the crystallization energy but also enhances the migration of adatoms and the removal of ligands, which significantly improve the crystallinity of the epitaxial layer. The X-ray diffraction reveals that the full width at half-maximum of the AlN (0002) rocking curve is only 144 arcsec in the AlN ultrathin epilayer with a thickness of only a few tens of nm. The high-resolution transmission electron microscopy also indicates the high-quality single-crystal hexagonal phase of the AlN epitaxial layer on the sapphire substrate. The result opens a window for further extension of the ALD applications from amorphous thin films to the high-quality low-temperature atomic layer epitaxy, which can be exploited in a variety of fields and applications in the near future.

Despite the numerous devoted studies, water at solid interfaces remains puzzling. An ongoing debate concerns the nature of interfacial water at a hydrophilic surface, whether it is more solid-like, ice-like, or liquid-like. To answer this question, a complete picture of the distribution of the water molecule structure and molecular interactions has to be obtained in a non-invasive way and on an ultrafast time scale. We developed a new experimental technique that extends the classical acoustic technique to the molecular level. Using nanoacoustic waves with a femtosecond pulsewidth and an ångström resolution to noninvasively diagnose the hydration structure distribution at ambient solid/water interface, we performed a complete mapping of the viscoelastic properties and of the density in the whole interfacial water region at hydrophilic surfaces. Our results suggest that water in the interfacial region possesses mixed properties and that the different pictures obtained up to now can be unified. Moreover, we discuss the effect of the interfacial water structure on the abnormal thermal transport properties of solid/liquid interfaces.

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