Abstract
Nano-structured photon management is currently an interesting topic since it can enhance the optical absorption and reduce the surface reflection which will improve the performance of many kinds of optoelectronic devices, such as Si-based solar cells and light emitting diodes. Here, we report the fabrication of periodically nano-patterned Si structures by using polystyrene nano-sphere lithography technique. By changing the diameter of nano-spheres and the dry etching parameters, such as etching time and etching power, the morphologies of formed Si nano-structures can be well controlled as revealed by atomic force microscopy. A good broadband antireflection property has been achieved for the formed periodically nano-patterned Si structures though they have the low aspect ratio (<0.53). The reflection can be significantly reduced compared with that of flat Si substrate in a wavelength range from 400 nm to 1200 nm. The weighted mean reflection under the AM1.5 solar spectrum irradiation can be as low as 3.92% and the corresponding optical absorption is significantly improved, which indicates that the present Si periodic nano-structures can be used in Si-based thin film solar cells.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Explore related subjects
Discover the latest articles, news and stories from top researchers in related subjects.Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Y. Y. Cao, Z. M. Wu, J. C. Ni, W. A. Bhutto, J. Li, S. P. Li, K. Huang and J. Y. Kang, “Type-II core/shell nanowire heterostructures and their photovoltaic applications”, Nano-Micro Lett, 4(3), 135–141 (2012). http://dx.doi.org/10.3786/nml.v4i3.p135-141
J. Zhu and Y. Cui, “Photovoltaics: More solar cells for less”, Nat. Mater. 9(3), 183–184 (2010). http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nmat2701
V. V. Iyengar, B. K. Nayak and M. C. Gupta, “Optical properties of silicon light trapping structures for photovoltaics”, Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. Cells 94(12), 2251–2257 (2010). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2010.07.020
M. D. Kelzenberg, S. W. Boettcher, J. A. Petykiewicz, D. B. Turner-Evans, M. C. Putnam, E. L. Warren, J. M. Spurgeon, R. M. Briggs, N. S. Lewis and H. A. Atwater, “Enhanced absorption and carrier collection in Si wire arrays for photovoltaic applications”, Nat. Mater. 9(3), 239 (2010). http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nmat2635
S. J. Jang, Y. M. Song, J. S. Yu, C. I. Yeo and Y. T. Lee, “Antireflective properties of porous Si nanocolumnar structures with graded refractive index layers”, Opt. Lett. 36(2), 253–255 (2011). http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OL.36.000253
J. Zhu, Z. Yu, G. F. Burkhard, C. M. Hsu, S. T. Connor, Y. Xu, Q. Wang, M. McGehee, S. Fan and Y. Cui, “Optical absorption enhancement in amorphous silicon nanowire and nanocone arrays”, Nano Lett. 9(1), 279–282 (2009). http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/nl802886y
J. Li, H. Y. Yu, Y. Li, F. Wang, M. Yang and S. M. Wong, “Low aspect-ratio hemispherical nanopit surface texturing for enhancing light absorption in crys- talline Si thin film-based solar cells”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 98(2), 021905–021907 (2011). http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3537810
V. Sivakov, G. Andrä, A. Gawlik, A. Berger, J. Plentz, F. Falk and S. H. Christiansen, “Silicon nanowirebased solar cells on glass: Synthesis, optical properties, and cell parameters”, Nano Lett. 9(4), 1549–1554 (2009). http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/nl803641f
D. Chen, Y. Liu, J. Xu, D. Wei, H. Sun, L. Xu, T. Wang, W. Li and K. Chen, “Improved emission efficiency of electroluminescent device containing nc-Si/SiO2 multilayers by using nano-patterned substrate”, Opt. Express 18(2), 917–922 (2010). http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OE.18.000917
Y. Liu, J. Xu, H.C. Sun, S. H. Sun, W. Xu, L. Xu and K. J. Chen, “Depth-dependent anti-reflection and enhancement of luminescence from Si quantum dots-based multilayer on nano-patterned Si substrates”, Opt. Express 19(4), 3347–3352 (2011). http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OE.19.003347
Y. Liu, S. H. Sun, J. Xu, L. Zhao, H. C. Sun, J. Li, W. W. Mu, L. Xu and K. J. Chen, “Broadband antireflection and absorption enhancement by forming nano-patterned Si structures for solar cells”, Opt. Express 19(s5), A1051–A1056 (2011). http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OE.19.0A1051
Y. Wang, J. Rybczynski, D. Z. Wang and Z. F. Ren, “Large-scale triangular lattice arrays of sub-micron islands by microsphere self-assembly”, Nanotechnology 16(6), 819–822 (2005). http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0957-4484/16/6/033
W. Li, J. Zhou, X. G. Zhang, J. Xu, L. Xu, W. Zhao, P. Sun, F. Song, J. Wan and K. Chen, “Field emission from a periodic amorphous silicon pillar array fabricated by modified nanosphere lithography”, Nanotechnology 19(13), 135308 (2008). http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0957-4484/19/13/135308
X. C. Li, J. S. Li, T. Chen, B. K. Tay, J. X. Wang and H. Y. Yu, “Periodically aligned Si nanopillar arrays as efficient antireflection layers for solar cell applications”, Nanoscale Res. Lett. 5, 1721–1726 (2010). http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11671-010-9701-3
M. A. Tsai, P. C. Tseng, H. C. Chen, H. C. Kuo and P. Yu, “Enhanced conversion efficiency of a crystalline silicon solar cell with frustum nanorod arrays”, Optics Express 19(S1), A28–A34 (2010). http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OE.19.000A28
N. Wan, J. Xu, G. Chen, X. Gan, S. Guo, L. Xu and K. Chen, “Broadband anti-reflection and enhanced field emission from catalyst-free grown smallsized ITO nanowires at a low temperature”, Acta Mater. 58(8), 3068–3072 (2010). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2010.01.041
J. Tang, J. Shi, L. Zhou and Z. Ma, “Fabrication and optical properties of silicon nanowires arrays by electroless Ag-catalyzed etching”, Nano-Micro Lett. 3(2), 129–134 (2011). http://dx.doi.org/10.3786/ nml.v3i2.p129-134
H. Sai, H. Fujii, K. Arafune, Y. Ohshita, M. Yamaguchi, Y. Kanamori and H. Yugami, “Antireflective subwavelength structures on crystalline Si fabricated using directly formed anodic porous alumina masks”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 88(20), 201116–201118 (2006). http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.2205173
S. Koynov, M. S. Brandt and M. Stutzmann, “Black nonreflecting silicon surfaces for solar cells”, Appl. Phys. Lett, 88(20), 203107–203109 (2006). http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.2204573
R. Biswas and C. Xu, “Nano-crystalline silicon solar cell architecture with absorption at the classical 4n2 limit”, Optics Express 9(S4), A664–A672 (2011). http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OE.19.00A664
S. Chattopadhyay, Y. F. Huang, Y. J. Jen, A. Ganguly, K. H. Chen and L. C. Chen, “Anti-reflecting and photonic nanostructures”, Mater. Sci. Eng. Rep. 69(1-3), 1–35 (2010). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mser.2010.04.001
J. S. Li, H. Y. Yu, S. M. Wong, G. Zhang, X. W. Sun, P. G. Lo and D. L. Kwong, “Si nanopillar array optimization on Si thin films for solar energy harvesting”, Appl. Phys. Let. 95(3), 033102–033104 (2009). http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3186046
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.
The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
About this article
Cite this article
Sun, S., Lu, P., Xu, J. et al. Fabrication of Anti-reflecting Si Nano-structures with Low Aspect Ratio by Nano-sphere Lithography Technique. Nano-Micro Lett. 5, 18–25 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03353727
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03353727