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Interdependence of morphological attributes and optoelectronic properties of porous silicon-nanowires

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Abstract

Si nanowires (SiNWs) are receiving tremendous attention due to their significant optical and electrical properties; however, porosity on the nanowires opens an opportunity for further improvement. The work establishes a connection between morphological changes in the optical and electrical characteristics of the porous SiNWs (PSiNWs) because of H2O2 concentration (0.1 M, 0.2 M, 0.3 M) variation during metal-assisted chemical etching. The directional etching controls the porosity; a modification to the classical gravimetric method is introduced to measure the porosity. PSiNWs fabricated at 0.2 M H2O2 concentration achieve the minimal average reflectance of 8.29% in the visible range and a band gap of 1.39 eV. The work discusses the effect of the decrease in saturation current and broad diode biasing voltage on the open-circuit voltage of solar cells, considering the optical and electrical properties of the PSiNWs. The optimization of H2O2 concentration to fabricate the PSiNWs for photovoltaic applications (photon absorption and antireflection properties) is illustrated.

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Funding

The research is a part of the project funded by SERB-DST, Govt. of India, with sanction no. CRG/2021/006956 dated 12-Mar-2022 under the Core Research Grant (CRG) scheme.

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  1. Department of Electrical Engineering, NIT Rourkela, Rourkela, Odisha, 769008, India

    Sakti Prasanna Muduli, Md Asif Khan & Paresh Kale

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SPM and MAK contributed to the conceptualization, experimentation, data collection, analysis, manuscript preparation, review, and editing. PK participated in the supervision, conceptualization, resources, reviewing, and editing of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Paresh Kale.

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Muduli, S.P., Khan, M.A. & Kale, P. Interdependence of morphological attributes and optoelectronic properties of porous silicon-nanowires. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 34, 1977 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-023-11314-9

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