Optical light management by self-arrangement of inverted tetragonal pyramids on the silicon surface through copper-assisted etching technique in a single step

Date

2022-09-01

Author

Donercark, Ergi
Çolakoğlu, Tahir
Terlemezoğlu, Makbule
Abak, Musa Kurtulus
Çiftpınar, Emine Hande
Bek, Alpan
Turan, Razit

Metadata

Show full item record

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Item Usage Stats

110
views

0
downloads

Developing efficient light trapping techniques plays a crucial role in improving silicon (Si) solar cell parameters by decreasing optical losses. Herein, four various surface morphologies by copper-assisted chemical etching (Cu-ACE) technique under various process conditions were developed. The etching solution is composed of copper nitrate trihydrate (Cu[NO3](2)), hydrofluoric acid, and hydrogen peroxide in deionized water. The systematic correlation study on the molarity of the chemical ingredients reveals that the final surface morphology is strongly dependent on the molarity of Cu(NO3)(2), resulting either in porous-like or micro elliptical shaped or inverted pyramid (IP) structures on the surface of p-type Si. The novel surface morphology, tetragonal-star-shaped IPs, is accomplished by gradually increasing process temperature from 50 degrees C to 55 degrees C in 15 min, resulting in an extremely low weighted reflectance value of 2.65% on a p-type Si wafer. Furthermore, aluminum back surface field Si solar cells were fabricated using the standard upright and novel tetragonal-star-shaped inverted pyramidal structures. The short-circuit current density and conversion efficiency values of the fabricated solar cells are significantly improved by the implementation of the tetragonal-star-shaped IPs, where short-circuit current density values are enhanced by 3% compared to the case where texturing with upright pyramids was applied.

Subject Keywords

copper-assisted chemical etching, inverted pyramid, reflectance, silicon solar cell, tetragonal-star-shaped inverted pyramids, BLACK SILICON, SI, FABRICATION, TEXTURIZATION, MICRO, LASER

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/99941

Journal

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENERGY RESEARCH

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1002/er.8738

Collections

Department of Physics, Article

Suggestions

OpenMETU
Core

Efficient Light Trapping in Inverted Nanopyramid Thin Crystalline Silicon Membranes for Solar Cell Applications MAVROKEFALOS, Anastassios; HAN, Sang Eon; Yerci, Selçuk; Branham, Matthew S.; CHEN, Gang (2012-06-01) Thin-film crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells with light-trapping structures can enhance light absorption within the semiconductor absorber layer and reduce material usage. Here we demonstrate that an inverted nanopyramid light-trapping scheme for c-Si thin films, fabricated at wafer scale via a low-cost wet etching process, significantly enhances absorption within the c-Si layer. A broadband enhancement in absorptance that approaches the Yablo-novitch limit (Yablo-novitch, E. J. Opt. Soc. Am. 1987, 72, ...
Selective emitter formation via single step doping through laser patterned mask oxide layer for monocrystalline silicon solar cells Çiftpınar, Emine Hande; Turan, Raşit; Department of Physics (2014) Selective emitter is one of the new approaches for higher efficiency solar cells. Although selective emitter cells could be processed by several different methods such as; etch back process, laser doping, ion implantation, doping paste, a different method based on diffusion through a laser patterned oxide layer was studied in this thesis. Utilization of pattern oxide layer as a diffusion barrier enables to obtain selective emitter profile via single step doping which reduces overall production cost and time...
Radial junction solar cells prepared on single crystalline silicon wafers by metal-assisted etching BAYTEMİR, Gulsen; ES, FIRAT; ALAGOZ, Arif Sinan; Turan, Raşit (2017-05-01) Radial junction solar cells have been proposed as an alternative device geometry to conventional planar solar cells with its remarkable electrical and optical performance. In this geometry, densely packed nano/micropillars allow minority carrier collection in the radial direction and shorten carrier diffusion length to p-n junction. Besides, reduced reflection from surface and increased light trapping in nano/micropillars enhance solar cell efficiency. In this study, photolithography and metal-assisted etch...
Surface modification of multi-crystalline silicon in photovoltaic cell by laser texturing Radfar, Behrad; Turan, Raşit; Yerci, Selçuk; Department of Micro and Nanotechnology (2019) Surface of crystalline silicon solar cell plays an important role in its performance. It affects the optical properties which can be determined by surface’ reflectance. To minimize the reflection from the flat surface, thus, improve light trapping, the crystalline silicon wafers must be textured. Through the texturing process, roughness is introduced at the surface, so the incident light has a larger probability of being absorbed into the solar cell. Monocrystalline silicon solar cells can typically be text...
DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF LASER PROCESSED LIGHT MANAGEMENT INTERFACES FOR GRAPHENE/SILICON SCHOTTKY SOLAR CELLS Avishan, Nardin; Bek, Alpan; Ünalan, Hüsnü Emrah; Department of Micro and Nanotechnology (2022-12-20) Graphene/silicon Schottky solar cells are one of the extensively studied topics during the last decade due to the high conductivity, high transparency, and mechanical flexibility properties of graphene. One of the most efficient and long-lasting methods used for performance enhancement for graphene/silicon Schottky solar cells is silicon surface texturing. It significantly increases the light absorption of silicon by controlling the incoming light through multiple interactions which is called light trapping...

Citation Formats

E. Donercark et al., “Optical light management by self-arrangement of inverted tetragonal pyramids on the silicon surface through copper-assisted etching technique in a single step,” INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENERGY RESEARCH, pp. 0–0, 2022, Accessed: 00, 2022. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/99941.