Periodically Aligned Si Nanopillar Arrays as Efficient Antireflection Layers for Solar Cell Applications

Xiaocheng Li; Junshuai Li; Ting Chen; Beng Kang Tay; Jianxiong Wang; Hongyu Yu

doi:10.1007/s11671-010-9701-3

Periodically Aligned Si Nanopillar Arrays as Efficient Antireflection Layers for Solar Cell Applications

Nanoscale Res Lett. 2010 Jul 28;5(11):1721-1726. doi: 10.1007/s11671-010-9701-3.

Authors

Xiaocheng Li¹, Junshuai Li, Ting Chen, Beng Kang Tay, Jianxiong Wang, Hongyu Yu

Affiliation

¹ School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore, 639798 Singapore.

Abstract

Periodically aligned Si nanopillar (PASiNP) arrays were fabricated on Si substrate via a silver-catalyzed chemical etching process using the diameter-reduced polystyrene spheres as mask. The typical sub-wavelength structure of PASiNP arrays had excellent antireflection property with a low reflection loss of 2.84% for incident light within the wavelength range of 200-1,000 nm. The solar cell incorporated with the PASiNP arrays exhibited a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of ~9.24% with a short circuit current density (J(SC)) of ~29.5 mA/cm(2) without using any extra surface passivation technique. The high PCE of PASiNP array-based solar cell was attributed to the excellent antireflection property of the special periodical Si nanostructure.