Surface passivation of silicon nanowires based metal nano-particle assisted chemical etching for photovoltaic applications

Metal Nano-particle Assisted Chemical Etching (MNpACE) is an extraordinary developed wet etching method for producing uniform semiconductor nanostructure (silicon nanowires) from patterned metallic film on crystalline silicon surface. The metal films facilitate the etching in HF and H2O2 solution and produce silicon nanowires (SiNWs).The creation of different SiNWs morphologies by changing the etching time and its effects on optical and optoelectronic properties was investigated. The combination effect of formed SiNWs and stain etching treatment in acid (HF/HNO3/H2O) solution on the surface morphology of Si wafers as well as on the optical and optoelectronic properties especially a PL response at 640 nm are presented. As a results, the effective lifetime (tau(eff)) and surface recombination velocity (S-eff) evolution of SiNWs after stain etching treatment showed significant improvements and less than 1% reflectance was achieved over the wavelength range of 400-800 nm and more than 36% reduction was observed compared to untreated surface. It has, thus, been demonstrated that all these factors may lead to improved energy efficiency from 8% to nearly 14.2% for a cell with SiNWs treated in acid (HF/HNO3/H2O) solution.