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Effect of thermal annealing on sub-band-gap absorptance of microstructured silicon in air

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Abstract

The optical absorption properties of femtosecond-laser-made “black silicon” as a function of the annealing conditions were investigated. We found that the annealing process changes the surface morphology and absorption spectroscopy of the “black silicon” samples, and obtained a maximum sub-band-gap absorptance value of approximately 30% by annealing at 1000 °C for 30 min. The thermal relaxation and atomic structural transformation mechanisms are used to describe the lattice recovery and the increase and decrease of the substitutional dopant atom concentration in the microstructured surface during the annealing. Our results confirm that: i) owing to the thermal relaxation, the lattice defects decrease with the increase of the annealing temperature; ii) the quasi-substitutional and interstitial configurations of the doped atoms transform into substitutional arrangements when the annealing temperature increases; iii) the quasi-substitutional and interstitial configurations with higher energies of the doped atoms transform into interstitial configurations with the lowest energy after high-temperature annealing for a long period of time, causing the deactivation or reactivation of the sub-band-gap absorptance by diffusion. The results demonstrate that the annealing can improve the properties of “black silicon”, including defects repairing, carrier lifetime lengthening, and retention of a high absorptive performance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The MOE Key Laboratory of Weak Light Nonlinear Photonics, TEDA Applied Physics Institute and School of Physics, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300457, China

    Li-Ping Cao  (曹丽萍), Zhan-Dong Chen  (陈战东), Chun-Ling Zhang  (张春玲) & Jiang-Hong Yao  (姚江宏)

  2. Department of Physics, Kashgar Teachers College, Kashgar, Xinjiang, 844000, China

    Li-Ping Cao  (曹丽萍)

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  1. Li-Ping Cao  (曹丽萍)
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  2. Zhan-Dong Chen  (陈战东)
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  3. Chun-Ling Zhang  (张春玲)
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  4. Jiang-Hong Yao  (姚江宏)
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Correspondence to Li-Ping Cao  (曹丽萍) or Jiang-Hong Yao  (姚江宏).

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Cao, LP., Chen, ZD., Zhang, CL. et al. Effect of thermal annealing on sub-band-gap absorptance of microstructured silicon in air. Front. Phys. 10, 1–7 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11467-015-0491-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11467-015-0491-z

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