Fabrication of antireflective sub-wavelength structures on silicon nitride using nano cluster mask for solar cell application

Kartikachandra Sahoo; Men-Ku Lin; Edward-Yi Chang; Yi-Yao Lu; Chun-Chi Chen; Jin-Hua Huang; Chun-Wei Chang

doi:10.1007/s11671-009-9297-7

Fabrication of antireflective sub-wavelength structures on silicon nitride using nano cluster mask for solar cell application

Nanoscale Res Lett. 2009 Apr 22;4(7):680-3. doi: 10.1007/s11671-009-9297-7.

Authors

Kartikachandra Sahoo¹, Men-Ku Lin, Edward-Yi Chang, Yi-Yao Lu, Chun-Chi Chen, Jin-Hua Huang, Chun-Wei Chang

Affiliation

¹ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan. edc@mail.nctu.edu.tw.

Abstract

We have developed a simple and scalable approach for fabricating sub-wavelength structures (SWS) on silicon nitride by means of self-assembled nickel nanoparticle masks and inductively coupled plasma (ICP) ion etching. Silicon nitride SWS surfaces with diameter of 160-200 nm and a height of 140-150 nm were obtained. A low reflectivity below 1% was observed over wavelength from 590 to 680 nm. Using the measured reflectivity data in PC1D, the solar cell characteristics has been compared for single layer anti-reflection (SLAR) coatings and SWS and a 0.8% improvement in efficiency has been seen.

Keywords: Anti-reflective coatings; Reflectance; SWS fabrication; Solar cell; Sub-wavelength Structure.