Effect of etching parameters on antireflection properties of Si subwavelength grating structures for solar cell applications

Abstract

Silicon (Si) subwavelength grating (SWG) structures were fabricated on Si substrates by holographic lithography and subsequent inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etching process using SiCl₄ with or without Ar addition for solar cell applications. To ensure a good nanosized pattern transfer into the underlying Si layer, the etch selectivity of Si over the photoresist mask is optimized by varying the etching parameters, thus improving antireflection characteristics. For antireflection analysis of Si SWG surfaces, the optical reflectivity is measured experimentally and it is also calculated theoretically by a rigorous coupled-wave analysis. The reflectance depends on the height, period, and shape of two-dimensional periodic Si subwavelength structures, correlated with ICP etching parameters. The optimized Si SWG structure exhibits a dramatic decrease in optical reflection of the Si surface over a wide angle of incident light (θ _i ), i.e. less than 5% at wavelengths of 300–1100 nm, leading to good wide-angle antireflection characteristics (i.e. solar-weighted reflection of 1.7–4.9% at θ _i <50°) of Si solar cells.