Abstract
Vertically aligned silicon nanowires have been synthesized by the chemical etching of silicon wafers. The influence of a hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) layer (shell) on top of a silicon nanowire (SiNW) solar cell has been investigated. The optical properties of a-Si:H/SiNWs and SiNWs are examined in terms of optical reflection and absorption properties. In the presence of the a-Si:H shell, 5.2% reflection ratio in the spectral range (250 to 1,000 nm) is achieved with a superior absorption property with an average over 87% of the incident light. In addition, the characteristics of the solar cell have been significantly improved, which exhibits higher open-circuit voltage, short-circuit current, and efficiency by more than 15%, 12%, and 37%, respectively, compared with planar SiNW solar cells. Based on the current–voltage measurements and morphology results, we show that the a-Si:H shell can passivate the defects generated by wet etching processes.
Highlights
Silicon nanowires (SiNWs) attract significant attention because of their potential applications in many fields like sensors, transistors, lithium batteries, diodes, and photovoltaics [1,2,3,4,5]
The full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the Si-H peak was in the same range as that of the reference amorphous silicon (a-Si):H deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) under the same conditions
Since the a-Si:H shell was not annealed after deposition, no narrowing of the stretch peak was observed [26]
Summary
Silicon nanowires (SiNWs) attract significant attention because of their potential applications in many fields like sensors, transistors, lithium batteries, diodes, and photovoltaics [1,2,3,4,5]. The superior antireflection property of the nanowire surface is attributed to three reasons: huge surface area of SiNWs, rough surface morphology which leads to strong light scattering as well as absorption, and Despite all these features, the maximum efficiency of planar solar cells using SiNW ARC does not exceed 10%. This low efficiency is attributed to many factors. To passivate the SiNW surface, minimizing the surface states [18]
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