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Nanostructuring methods for enhancing light absorption rate of Si-based photovoltaic devices: A review

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  • Published: 15 January 2014
  • volume 1, pages 67–74 (2014)
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International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing-Green Technology Aims and scope Submit manuscript
Nanostructuring methods for enhancing light absorption rate of Si-based photovoltaic devices: A review
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  • Soonwook Hong1,
  • Jiwoong Bae1,
  • Bongjun Koo1,
  • Ikwhang Chang2,
  • Gu Young Cho2,
  • Young-Beom Kim1,
  • Suk Won Cha2 &
  • …
  • Fritz B. Prinz3 

  • 1288 Accesses

  • 27 Citations

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Abstract

In recent years, there has been growing consideration of renewable energy especially photovoltaic devices. A silicon (Si) based solar cell is the most popularly and frequently considered among the photovoltaic devices, but its bulk thickness issue lowers the performance and hinders widespread application due to the material cost. Also, this thick nature causes difference in length between minority carrier diffusion and sufficient light absorption. To mitigate the issues there have been many recent studies on Si photovoltaic devices adopting nanostructuring strategies to enhance the performance. Therefore, we report two different approaches on recent nanostructuring techniques for photovoltaic devices; bottom-up and top-down processes, which are composed of vapor-liquid-solid, solution-liquid-solid, reactive ion etching with Langmuir Blodgett and metal assisted chemical etching. Those fabrication processes enable the fabrication of nanostructures with a highly ordered and alignment structures leading to enhance the light absorption and have an appropriate thickness of Si substrate regressing Auger recombination. The fabricated nanowire and nanocone array structures outperform existing results with light absorption exceeding 90%.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hanyang University, Seongdong-gu, 222 Wangsimni-ro, Seoul, 133-791, South Korea

    Soonwook Hong, Jiwoong Bae, Bongjun Koo & Young-Beom Kim

  2. Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Seoul National University, Gwanak-ro 1, Gwanak-gu, Seoul, 151-744, South Korea

    Ikwhang Chang, Gu Young Cho & Suk Won Cha

  3. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA

    Fritz B. Prinz

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  1. Soonwook Hong
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  2. Jiwoong Bae
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Correspondence to Young-Beom Kim.

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Hong, S., Bae, J., Koo, B. et al. Nanostructuring methods for enhancing light absorption rate of Si-based photovoltaic devices: A review. Int. J. of Precis. Eng. and Manuf.-Green Tech. 1, 67–74 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40684-014-0011-6

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  • Received: 28 November 2013

  • Accepted: 26 December 2013

  • Published: 15 January 2014

  • Issue Date: January 2014

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40684-014-0011-6

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Keywords

  • Photovoltaic device
  • Light absorption
  • Vapor-liquid-solid
  • Solution-liquid-solid
  • Reactive ion etching
  • Metal assisted chemical etching
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