In this work, the authors present a novel fabrication process to create periodic nanostructures with aspect ratio as high as 9.6. These nanostructures reduce spectral reflectance of silicon to less than 4% over the broad wavelength region from 200 to 2000 nm. At the visible range of the spectrum, from 200 to 650 nm, reflectivity is reduced to less than 0.1%. The aspect ratio and reflectance performance that the authors achieved have never been reported before for ordered tapered nanostructures, to our knowledge.
We present a novel fabrication process based on laser interference lithography, lift-off and reactive ion etching, which allows us to fabricate periodic nanostructures on photovoltaic substrates with an average root mean square (RMS) roughness of 750 nm. We fabricate nanostructures on unpolished crystalline silicon substrates, which reduces their reflectance 30% as fabricated. When an additional passivation layer is deposited, the light trapping grows, achieving a reflectance reduction of 60%. In addition, we have successfully integrated the nanostructured substrates in silicon wafer-based solar cells following standard processes, achieving a final efficiency of 15.56%.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.