Fabrication and Photovoltaic Properties of Silicon Solar Cells with Different Diameters and Heights of Nanopillars

Abstract

Silicon nanopillars with average diameters from 200 to 900 nm and heights from 0.5 to 3 μm have been successfully fabricated by cesium chloride (CsCl) self‐assembly lithography and dry etching as antireflection layer for solar cells. The antireflection and photovoltaic characteristics for the structures of silicon nanopillars have been researched and show that the reflectivity, photovoltaic conversion efficiency (PCE), and external quantum efficiency (EQE) are greatly influenced by the average diameter and height of nanopillars. The nanopillars with small diameters and large heights can supress reflection, but have less‐favorable photovoltic properties because of greater surface recombination and a greater number of lattice defects. The lowest reflectivity was achieved for silicon nanopillars of 200 nm average diameter and 1.5 μm height, for which the reflectivity was below 5 % between the wavelengths of 400 and 1000 nm, and the solar cell with silicon nanopillars of 600 nm average diameter and 1.5 μm height exhibited the best solar cell performance with a PCE of 14.83 %, a short‐circuit current density (Jsc) of 36.89 mA cm−2, and an open‐circuit voltage (Voc) of 542 mV.

Overcoming the Problem of Electrical Contact to Solar Cells Fabricated using Selective‐Area Silicon Nanopillars by Cesium Chloride Self‐Assembly Lithography as Antireflective Layer

“…Secondly,t he nanopillars were fabricated by using ICP dry etching with the CsCl nanoislands as masks.F inally,t he wafer was soaked in deionized water to remove the residual masks. [20,21] With this method, silicon nanopillars of heights from 0.2 to 0.5 mmw ere successfully fabricated as an antireflection layer for solar cells.…”

Temperature-dependent photoluminescence and mechanism of CdS thin film grown on Si nanoporous pillar array

“…Nevertheless, the large lattice (7%) and thermal mismatch (48%) existed between crystal Si and CdS make the direct growth of high-quality CdS thin films on sc-Si substrate be difficult [11,12], especially for the preparation by liquid chemical method such as CBD. Presently two routes are often adopted to abate the mismatches, one is through inserting an intermediate transition layer or layers [13], and the other is by growing Si (CdS) nanostructures on CdS (Si) bulk substrates [14,15], or even by growing Si (CdS) nanostructures on CdS (Si) nanostructures [6,16,17]. Si nanoporous pillar array (Si-NPA) is a Si hierarchical structure characterized by a regular array of micronsized, quasi-identical and nanoporous silicon pillars, and has been proved to be with strong photoluminescence (PL) at room temperature and high light-absorption in wide spectral range [18].…”

Micro‐/Nanopillars for Micro‐ and Nanotechnologies Using Inductively Coupled Plasmas

“…As appropriate nanofabrication methods become more and more available, different fields have started to benefit from the miniaturization of nanopillars: ongoing research has demonstrated the great potential of nanopillars in photonic crystal structures for the control of a broad range light propagation in broad range of novel optoelectronic devices. Replacing micropillars with nanopillars has proven extremely beneficial also in fields such as nanotechnology, bioelectronics, and biosensors, where devices are being made with increasingly smaller features .…”