Abstract
Dependences of the etch rates for KOH and HF:H2O2:CH3COOH solutions on SiGe layer composition were investigated. The obtained results has been proposed to use for formation of the submicron relief on the silicon surface via selective etching of the structures with Ge(Si) self-assembled nanoislands. In the framework of the proposed approach the Ge(Si) nanoislands serve as a mask for selective etching of Si in a mixture of an aqueous solution of KOH with isopropyl alcohol, followed by the islands removal from the surface by the selective etching in HF:H2O2:CH3COOH. It was demonstrated experimentally that such approach allows to produce the submicron relief on a silicon surface, which leads to the significant decrease of the reflectivity in a wide spectral range. It is believed that the proposed method of surface relief formation can be used to improve the efficiency of the thin-film solar cells based on the crystalline silicon.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
M. S. B. Castro, S. Barnola, and B. Glück, J. Integr. Circuits Syst. 8, 104 (2013).
T. K. Carns, M. O. Tanner, and K. L. Wang, J. Electrochem. Soc. 142, 1260 (1995).
M. Stoffel, A. Malachias, T. Merdzhanova, F. Cavallo, G. Isella, D. Chrastina, H. von Kanel, A. Rastelli, and O. G. Schmidt, Semicond. Sci. Technol. 23, 085021 (2008).
F. Sebaai, L. Witters, F. Holsteyns, K. Wostyn, J. Rip, Y. Yukifumi, R. Lieten, S. Bilodeau, and E. Cooper, Solid State Phenom. 225, 3 (2016).
N. Usami, W. Pan, T. Tayagaki, S. T. Chu, J. Li, T. Feng, Y. Hoshi, and T. Kiguchi, Nanotechnology 23, 185401 (2012).
Y. Hoshi, W. Pan, T. Kiguchi, K. Ooi, T. Tayagaki, and N. Usami, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 52, 080202 (2013).
X. Liu, P. R. Coxon, M. Peters, B. Hoex, J. M. Cole, and D. J. Fray, Energy Environ. Sci. 7, 3223 (2014).
W. L. Bailey, M. G. Coleman, C. B. Harris, and I. A. Lesk, US Patent No. 4137123 (1979).
O. Aonuma, Y. Hoshi, T. Tayagaki, A. Novikov, D. Yurasov, and N. Usami, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 54, 08KA01 (2015).
B. Holländer, D. Buca, S. Mantl, and J. M. Hartmann, J. Electrochem. Soc. 157, H643 (2010).
A. Hombe, Y. Kurokawa, and N. Usami, in Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Nanotechnology IEEE NANO 2016 (Sendai, 2016), Paper TuPM17.
A. V. Novikov, B. A. Andreev, N. V. Vostokov, Yu. N. Drozdov, Z. F. Krasil’nik, D. N. Lobanov, L. D. Moldavskaya, A. N. Yablonskiy, M. Miura, N. Usami, Y. Shiraki, M. Ya. Valakh, N. Mesters, and J. Pascual, Mater. Sci. Eng. B 89, 62 (2002).
K. Brunner, Rep. Progr. Phys. 65, 27 (2002).
D. F. Edwards, in Handbook of Optical Constants of Solids, Ed. by E. D. Palik (Academic, New York, 1998), Vol. 1, p. 552.
O. Powell and H. B. Harrison, J. Micromech. Microeng. 11, 217 (2001).
K. P. Rola and I. Zubel, Mater. Sci. (Poland) 29, 278 (2011).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Original Russian Text © N.A. Baidakova, V.A. Verbus, E.E. Morozova, A.V. Novikov, E.V. Skorohodov, M.V. Shaleev, D.V. Yurasov, A. Hombe, Y. Kurokawa, N. Usami, 2017, published in Fizika i Tekhnika Poluprovodnikov, 2017, Vol. 51, No. 12, pp. 1599–1604.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Baidakova, N.A., Verbus, V.A., Morozova, E.E. et al. Selective etching of Si, SiGe, Ge and its usage for increasing the efficiency of silicon solar cells. Semiconductors 51, 1542–1546 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063782617120028
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063782617120028