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Nano-Texturing of Silicon Wafers Via One-Step Copper-Assisted Chemical Etching

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Abstract

Nano-texturing of a silicon surface has been achieved via one-step copper-assisted chemical etching (CACE), which offers a simple approach for large-scale production of inverted pyramid textured silicon surfaces. The effects of H2O2 concentration, etching time and reaction temperature on the inverted pyramid-like structure and anti-reflective ability were systematically investigated. The results show that the lowest average reflectivity (4.3%) in the wavelength range of 300~1000 nm was obtained under the optimum conditions of 0.06 mol/L copper nitrate, 3 mol/L H2O2 concentration and 2 mol/L hydrofluoric acid (HF) at 60 °C for 5 min. The formation mechanism of the inverted pyramid structure is discussed and can be attributed to the moderate catalytic activity of nanocopper particles that induce etching preferentially along the non-<111 > directions of the silicon. The inverted pyramid structures, with the excellent anti-reflectivity, have potential application in the fabrication of solar cells compatible with the semiconducting industry.

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Acknowledgements

Financial support of this work from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61764009, 51764028, 51762043), Key Project of Yunnan Province Natural Science Fund (2018FA027), Yunnan Youth Fund Project (2016FD037) and the Program for Innovative Research Team in University of Ministry of Education of China (No. IRT_17R48).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Metallurgical and Energy Engineering/State Key Laboratory of Complex Nonferrous Metal Resources Clean Utilization, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650093, China

    Altyeb-Ali-Abaker Omer, Yuanyuan Yang, Guizhang Sheng, Shaoyuan Li, Jie Yu, Wenhui Ma, Jiajia Qiu & Wael El Kolaly

  2. Institute of New Energy/Silicon Metallurgy and Silicon Material Engineering Research Center of Universities in Yunnan Province, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650093, China

    Altyeb-Ali-Abaker Omer, Yuanyuan Yang, Shaoyuan Li, Jie Yu, Wenhui Ma, Jiajia Qiu & Wael El Kolaly

  3. Agricultural Engineering Research Institute (AENRI), Agricultural Research Center (ARC), Ministry of Agriculture, 256 Dokki, Giza, Egypt

    Wael El Kolaly

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  1. Altyeb-Ali-Abaker Omer
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  2. Yuanyuan Yang
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  4. Shaoyuan Li
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Correspondence to Shaoyuan Li or Jie Yu.

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Omer, AAA., Yang, Y., Sheng, G. et al. Nano-Texturing of Silicon Wafers Via One-Step Copper-Assisted Chemical Etching. Silicon 12, 231–238 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12633-019-00117-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12633-019-00117-5

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