Black silicon laser-doped selective emitter solar cell with 18.1% efficiency

We report fabrication of nanostructured, laser-doped selective emitter (LDSE) silicon solar cells with power conversion efficiency of 18.1% and a fill factor (FF) of 80.1%. The nanostructured solar cells were realized through a single step, mask-less, scalable reactive ion etch (RIE) texturing of the surface. The selective emitter was formed by means of laser doping using a continuous wave (CW) laser and subsequent contact formation using light-induced plating of Ni and Cu. The combination of RIE-texturing and a LDSE cell design has to our knowledge not been demonstrated previously. The resulting efficiency indicates a promising potential, especially considering that the cell reported in this work is the first proof-of-concept and that the fabricated cell is not fully optimized in terms of plating, emitter sheet resistance and surface passivation. Due to the scalable nature and simplicity of RIE-texturing as well as the LDSE process, we consider this specific combination a promising candidate for a cost-efficient process for future Si solar cells. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.