Lifetime of Nano-Structured Black Silicon for Photovoltaic Applications

In this work, we present recent results of lifetime optimization for nano-structured black silicon and its photovoltaic applications. Black silicon nano-structures provide significant reduction of silicon surface reflection due to highly corrugated nanostructures with excellent light trapping properties. We applied reactive ion etching technology at -20ºC to create nano-structures on silicon samples and obtained an average reflectance below 0.5%. For passivation purposes, we used 37 nm ALD Al2O3 films. Lifetime measurements resulted in 1220 µs and to 4170 µs for p- and ntype CZ silicon wafers, respectively. This is promising for use of black silicon RIE nano-structuring in a solar cell process flow