Efficiency enhancement of nanotextured black silicon solar cells using Al2O3/TiO2 dual-layer passivation stack prepared by atomic layer deposition

ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces

Volumn 7, Issue 19, 2015, Pages 10228-10237

  Wang, Wei Cheng ^a   Tsai, Meng Chen ^a   Yang, Jason ^b   Hsu, Chuck ^b   Chen, Miin Jang ^a  

^a NATIONAL TAIWAN UNIVERSITY   (Taiwan)

^b Sino American Silicon Productions Inc   (Taiwan)

Author keywords

aluminum oxide (Al2O3); atomic layer deposition; nanotextured black silicon; silicon nanowire; solar cell; surface passivation; titanium dioxide (TiO2)

Indexed keywords

ALUMINA; ALUMINUM COATINGS; ALUMINUM OXIDE; ASPECT RATIO; ATOMIC LAYER DEPOSITION; ATOMS; BORON COMPOUNDS; EFFICIENCY; NANOWIRES; PASSIVATION; SILICON SOLAR CELLS; SILICON WAFERS; SOLAR CELLS; TITANIUM DIOXIDE;

BLACK SILICON; BLACK SILICON SOLAR CELLS; EFFICIENCY ENHANCEMENT; INTERFACIAL STATE DENSITY; SILICON NANOWIRE ARRAYS; SILICON NANOWIRES; SURFACE PASSIVATION; TITANIUM DIOXIDES (TIO2);

NITROGEN COMPOUNDS;

EID: 84930211426     PISSN: 19448244     EISSN: 19448252     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.5b00677     Document Type: Article

References (69)

1. Garnett, E.; Yang, P. D. Light Trapping in Silicon Nanowire Solar Cells Nano Lett. 2010, 10, 1082-1087
2. Han, S. E.; Chen, G. Toward the Lambertian Limit of Light Trapping in Thin Nanostructured Silicon Solar Cells Nano Lett. 2010, 10, 4692-4696
3. Lu, Y. T.; Barron, A. R. Nanopore-Type Black Silicon Anti-Reflection Layers Fabricated by a One-Step Silver-Assisted Chemical Etching Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2013, 15, 9862-9870
4. Otto, M.; Kroll, M.; Kasebier, T.; Salzer, R.; Tunnermann, A.; Wehrspohn, R. B. Extremely Low Surface Recombination Velocities in Black Silicon Passivated by Atomic Layer Deposition Appl. Phys. Lett. 2012, 100, 191603
5. Pei, T. H.; Thiyagu, S.; Pei, Z. Ultra High-Density Silicon Nanowires for Extremely Low Reflection in Visible Regime Appl. Phys. Lett. 2011, 99, 153108
6. Srivastava, S. K.; Kumar, D.; Singh, P. K.; Kar, M.; Kumar, V.; Husain, M. Excellent Antireflection Properties of Vertical Silicon Nanowire Arrays Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. C 2010, 94, 1506-1511
7. Chang, H. C.; Lai, K. Y.; Dai, Y. A.; Wang, H. H.; Lin, C. A.; He, J. H. Nanowire Arrays with Controlled Structure Profiles for Maximizing Optical Collection Efficiency Energy Environ. Sci. 2011, 4, 2863-2869
8. Huang, Y. F.; Chattopadhyay, S.; Jen, Y. J.; Peng, C. Y.; Liu, T. A.; Hsu, Y. K.; Pan, C. L.; Lo, H. C.; Hsu, C. H.; Chang, Y. H.; Lee, C. S.; Chen, K. H.; Chen, L. C. Improved Broadband and Quasi-Omnidirectional Anti-Reflection Properties with Biomimetic Silicon Nanostructures Nat. Nanotechnol. 2007, 2, 770-774
9. Kanamori, Y.; Sasaki, M.; Hane, K. Broadband Antireflection Gratings Fabricated upon Silicon Substrates Opt. Lett. 1999, 24, 1422-1424
10. Lin, Y. R.; Lai, K. Y.; Wang, H. P.; He, J. H. Slope-Tunable Si Nanorod Arrays with Enhanced Antireflection and Self-Cleaning Properties Nanoscale 2010, 2, 2765-2768
11. Pignalos, P.; Lee, H.; Qiao, L.; Tseng, M.; Yi, Y. Graded Index and Randomly Oriented Core-Shell Silicon Nanowires for Broadband and Wide Angle Antireflection AIP Adv. 2011, 1, 032124
12. Xie, W. Q.; Oh, J. I.; Shen, W. Z. Realization of Effective Light Trapping and Omnidirectional Antireflection in Smooth Surface Silicon Nanowire Arrays Nanotechnology 2011, 22, 065704
13. Yeo, C. I.; Kim, J. B.; Song, Y. M.; Lee, Y. T. Antireflective Silicon Nanostructures with Hydrophobicity by Metal-Assisted Chemical Etching for Solar Cell Applications Nanoscale Res. Lett. 2013, 8, 159
14. Steglich, M.; Zilk, M.; Bingel, A.; Patzig, C.; Kasebier, T.; Schrempel, F.; Kley, E. B.; Tunnermann, A. A Normal-Incidence PtSi Photoemissive Detector with Black Silicon Light-Trapping J. Appl. Phys. 2013, 114, 183102
15. Torres-Costa, V.; Martin-Palma, R. J. Application of Nanostructured Porous Silicon in the Field of Optics. A review J. Mater. Sci. 2010, 45, 2823-2838
16. Algasinger, M.; Paye, J.; Werner, F.; Schmidt, J.; Brandt, M. S.; Stutzmann, M.; Koynov, S. Improved Black Silicon for Photovoltaic Applications Adv. Energy Mater. 2013, 3, 1068-1074
17. Jeong, S.; McGehee, M. D.; Cui, Y. All-Back-Contact Utra-Thin Silicon Nanocone Solar Cells with 13.7% Power Conversion Efficiency Nat. Commun. 2013, 4, 2950
18. Lu, Y. R.; Lal, A. High-Efficiency Ordered Silicon Nano-Conical-Frustum Array Solar Cells by Self-Powered Parallel Electron Lithography Nano Lett. 2010, 10, 4651-4656
19. Sharma, M.; Pudasaini, P. R.; Ruiz-Zepeda, F.; Elam, D.; Ayon, A. A. Ultrathin, Flexible Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Solar Cells Based on Silicon Nanowires and PEDOT:PSS ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2014, 6, 4356-4363
20. Li, X. P.; Xiao, Y. J.; Bang, J. H.; Lausch, D.; Meyer, S.; Miclea, P. T.; Jung, J. Y.; Schweizer, S. L.; Lee, J. H.; Wehrspohn, R. B. Upgraded Silicon Nanowires by Metal-Assisted Etching of Metallurgical Silicon: A New Route to Nanostructured Solar-Grade Silicon Adv. Mater. 2013, 25, 3187-3191
21. Wu, S. L.; Wen, L.; Cheng, G. A.; Zheng, R. T.; Wu, X. L. Surface Morphology-Dependent Photoelectrochemical Properties of One-Dimensional Si Nanostructure Arrays Prepared by Chemical Etching ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2013, 5, 4769-4776
22. Kumar, D.; Srivastava, S. K.; Singh, P. K.; Husain, M.; Kumar, V. Fabrication of Silicon Nanowire Arrays Based Solar Cell with Improved Performance Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. C 2011, 95, 215-218
23. Lin, X. X.; Hua, X.; Huang, Z. G.; Shen, W. Z. Realization of High Performance Silicon Nanowire Based Solar Cells with Large Size Nanotechnology 2013, 24, 235402
24. Liu, Y. P.; Lai, T.; Li, H. L.; Wang, Y.; Mei, Z. X.; Liang, H. L.; Li, Z. L.; Zhang, F. M.; Wang, W. J.; Kuznetsov, A. Y.; Du, X. L. Nanostructure Formation and Passivation of Large-Area Black Silicon for Solar Cell Applications Small 2012, 8, 1392-1397
25. He, L. N.; Lai, D.; Wang, H.; Jiang, C. Y. Rusli High-Efficiency Si/Polymer Hybrid Solar Cells Based on Synergistic Surface Texturing of Si Nanowires on Pyramids Small 2012, 8, 1664-1668
26. Liu, X.; Coxon, P. R.; Peters, M.; Hoex, B.; Cole, J. M.; Fray, D. J. Black Silicon: Fabrication Methods, Properties and Solar Energy Applications Energy Environ.. Sci. 2014, 7, 3223-3263
27. Cheng, Y. T.; Ho, J. J.; Tsai, S. Y.; Ye, Z. Z.; Lee, W.; Hwang, D. S.; Chang, S. H.; Chang, C. C.; Wang, K. L. Efficiency Improved by Acid Texturization for Multi-Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells Sol. Energy 2011, 85, 87-94
28. Jang, H. S.; Choi, H. J.; Oh, B. Y.; Kim, J. H. Combinational Approach of Electrochemical Etching and Metal-Assisted Chemical Etching for p-Type Silicon Wire Formation Electrochem. Solid State 2011, 14, D5-D9
29. Dussart, R.; Tillocher, T.; Lefaucheux, P.; Boufnichel, M. Plasma Cryogenic Etching of Silicon: from the Early Days to Today's Advanced Technologies J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 2014, 47, 123001
30. Nguyen, K. N.; Basset, P.; Marty, F.; Leprince-Wang, Y.; Bourouina, T. On the Optical and Morphological Properties of Microstructured Black Silicon Obtained by Cryogenic-Enhanced Plasma Reactive Ion Etching J. Appl. Phys. 2013, 113, 194903
31. Liu, K.; Qu, S. C.; Zhang, X. H.; Tan, F. R.; Bi, Y.; Lu, S. D.; Wang, Z. G. Sulfur-Doped Black Silicon formed by Metal-Assist Chemical Etching and Ion Implanting Appl. Phys. A: Mater. Sci. Process. 2014, 114, 765-768
32. Umezu, I.; Warrender, J. M.; Charnvanichborikarn, S.; Kohno, A.; Williams, J. S.; Tabbal, M.; Papazoglou, D. G.; Zhang, X. C.; Aziz, M. J. Emergence of very Broad Infrared Absorption Band by Hyperdoping of Silicon with Chalcogens J. Appl. Phys. 2013, 113, 213501
33. Chen, C. Y.; Li, W. J.; Chen, H. H. Tailoring Broadband Antireflection on a Silicon Surface through Two-Step Silver-Assisted Chemical Etching ChemPhysChem 2012, 13, 1415-1420
34. Kumar, D.; Srivastava, S. K.; Singh, P. K.; Sood, K. N.; Singh, V. N.; Dilawar, N.; Husain, M. Room Temperature Growth of Wafer-Scale Silicon Nanowire Arrays and Their Raman Characteristics J. Nanopart. Res. 2010, 12, 2267-2276
35. Matsui, Y.; Adachi, S. Optical Properties of 'Black Silicon'Formed by Catalytic Etching of Au/Si(100) Wafers J. Appl. Phys. 2013, 113, 173502
36. Srivastava, S. K.; Kumar, D.; Vandana Sharma, M.; Kumar, R.; Singh, P. K. Silver Catalyzed Nano-Texturing of Silicon Surfaces for Solar Cell Applications Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. C 2012, 100, 33-38
37. 2 Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2012, 51, 12740-12744
38. Juzeliunas, E.; Cox, A.; Fray, D. J. Electro-Deoxidation of Thin Silica Layer in Molten Salt-Globular Structures with Effective Light Absorbance Electrochim. Acta 2012, 68, 123-127
39. Koynov, S.; Brandt, M. S.; Stutzmann, M. Black Thin Film Silicon J. Appl. Phys. 2011, 110, 043537
40. Huang, Z. P.; Geyer, N.; Werner, P.; de Boor, J.; Gosele, U. Metal-Assisted Chemical Etching of Silicon: A Review Adv. Mater. 2011, 23, 285-308
41. Oh, J.; Yuan, H. C.; Branz, H. M. An 18.237.22-Efficient Black-Silicon Solar Cell Achieved through Control of Carrier Recombination in Nanostructures Nat. Nanotechnol 2012, 7, 743-748
42. Repo, P.; Benick, J.; Vähänissi, V.; Schön, J.; von Gastrow, G.; Steinhauser, B.; Schubert, M. C.; Hermle, M.; Savin, H. N-type Black Silicon Solar Cells Energy Proc. 2013, 38, 866-871
43. Zhong, S. H.; Liu, B. W.; Xia, Y.; Liu, J. H.; Liu, J.; Shen, Z. A.; Xu, Z.; Li, C. B. Influence of the Texturing Structure on the Properties of Black Silicon Solar Cell Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. C 2013, 108, 200-204
44. Zhong, S.; Huang, Z.; Lin, X.; Zeng, Y.; Ma, Y.; Shen, W. High-Efficiency Nanostructured Silicon Solar Cells on a Large Scale Realized Through the Suppression of Recombination Channels Adv. Mater. 2014, 27, 555-561
45. 3 J. Appl. Phys. 2008, 104, 113703
46. 2 Thermal Oxidation ECS Solid State Lett. 2013, 2, Q17-Q20
47. Liu, S. Y.; Niu, X. W.; Shan, W.; Lu, W.; Zheng, J. Y.; Li, Y. F.; Duan, H. B.; Quan, W. J.; Han, W. Z.; Wronski, C. R.; Yang, D. R. Improvement of Conversion Efficiency of Multicrystalline Silicon Solar Cells by Incorporating Reactive Ion Etching Texturing Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. C 2014, 127, 21-26
48. Yue, Z. H.; Shen, H. L.; Jiang, Y.; Chen, W. L.; Tang, Q. T.; Jin, J. L.; Pu, T.; Luo, J. W.; Kong, F. J.; Rui, C. B.; Cai, J. B. Large-Scale Black Multi-Crystalline Silicon Solar Cell with Conversion Efficiency over 18% Appl. Phys. A: Mater. Sci. Process. 2014, 116, 683-688
49. Huang, Z.; Zhong, S.; Hua, X.; Lin, X.; Kong, X.; Dai, N.; Shen, W. An Effective Way to Simultaneous Realization of Excellent Optical and Electrical Performance in Large-Scale Si Nano/Microstructures Prog. Photovolt., Res. Appl. 2014, 10.1002/pip.2506
50. Ye, X. Y.; Zou, S.; Chen, K. X.; Li, J. J.; Huang, J.; Cao, F.; Wang, X. S.; Zhang, L. J.; Wang, X. F.; Shen, M. R.; Su, X. D. 18.45%-Efficient Multi-Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells with Novel Nanoscale Pseudo-Pyramid Texture Adv. Funct. Mater. 2014, 24, 6708-6716
51. 3-Based Surface Passivation Schemes for Silicon Solar Cells J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 2012, 30, 040802
52. Wang, W. C.; Lin, C. W.; Chen, H. J.; Chang, C. W.; Huang, J. J.; Yang, M. J.; Tjahjono, B.; Huang, J. J.; Hsu, W. C.; Chen, M. J. Surface Passivation of Efficient Nanotextured Black Silicon Solar Cells Using Thermal Atomic Layer Deposition ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2013, 5, 9752-9759
53. 3 Conformal Shell Layer on Antireflective ZnO Nanorod Array ECS J. Solid State Sci. Technol. 2014, 3, Q221-Q226
54. Fang, H.; Wu, Y.; Zhao, J. H.; Zhu, J. Silver Catalysis in the Fabrication of Silicon Nanowire Arrays Nanotechnology 2006, 17, 3768-3774
55. 2 Nanoparticle Layer Grown by Atomic Layer Deposition Phys. Status Solidi R 2009, 3, 88-90
56. Henkel, C.; Abermann, S.; Bethge, O.; Bertagnolli, E. Atomic Layer-Deposited Platinum in High-K/Metal Gate Stacks Semicond. Sci. Technol. 2009, 24, 125013
57. 2 Thin Films Grown by Atomic-Layer Deposition J. Appl. Phys. 2005, 98, 033715
58. 2 Films with Ultralow Leakage Currents for next Generation DRAM Capacitors Adv. Mater. 2008, 20, 1429-1439
59. Terman, L. M. An Investigation of Surface States at a Silicon Silicon Oxide Interface Employing Metal Oxide Silicon Diodes Solid State Electron. 1962, 5, 285-299
60. 2 Interface by Atomic-Hydrogen Appl. Phys. Lett. 1993, 63, 1510-1512
61. Henson, W. K.; Ahmed, K. Z.; Vogel, E. M.; Hauser, J. R.; Wortman, J. J.; Venables, R. D.; Xu, M.; Venables, D. Estimating Oxide Thickness of Tunnel Oxides down to 1.4 nm Using Conventional Capacitance-Voltage Measurements on MOS capacitors IEEE Electron Device Lett. 1999, 20, 179-181
62. 3 Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor-Based Devices J. Appl. Phys. 2011, 109, 033715
63. Shin, B.; Weber, J. R.; Long, R. D.; Hurley, P. K.; Van de Walle, C. G.; McIntyre, P. C. Origin and Passivation of Fixed Charge in Atomic Layer Deposited Aluminum Oxide Gate Insulators on Chemically Treated InGaAs Substrates Appl. Phys. Lett. 2010, 96, 152908
64. 2 Using Slant-Etched Wafer for Solar Cell Application Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 2011, 50, 071503
65. 3 Film Passivation of Silicon Surface by Rapid Thermal Processing Appl. Phys. Lett. 2011, 99, 052103
66. 3 Prepared by Remote Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 2001, 19, 1353-1360
67. 2 Coatings for Silicon Solar Cells by Pulsed Laser Deposition Appl. Phys. A: Mater. Sci. Process. 1999, 69, S409-S411
68. 2 and other Dielectric Coatings for Buried-Contact Solar Cells: a review Prog. Photovoltaics 2004, 12, 253-281
69. oc Measurements in Multicrystalline Solar Cells, Photovoltaic Specialists Conference. Conference Record of the Twenty-Ninth IEEE, May 19-24, 2002; IEEE: Piscataway, NJ, 2002; pp 371-374.