Effect of nucleating agents on crystalline silicon textured structure: From upright pyramid to analogous inverted pyramid

Abstract

For further improving the efficiency of solar cells, it is one of the mainstream approaches to obtain a novel textured surface structure with lower reflectivity, without affecting the existing industry processes. However, the current rapid texturing methods used in the industry can only achieve an upright pyramid structure. This study first analyzed how the rapid texturing process is achieved through texturing additives. Subsequently, based on this principle, we investigated the core component of the texturing additives—nucleating agent—and examined how its concentration influences the surface structure, leading to the development of an analogous inverted pyramid structure with advantageous reflectivity. To remove the damage layer generated at the top edges of the analogous inverted pyramid due to insufficient etching, a two-step texturing process was proposed. This process aims to protect the structure while effectively removing the damage layer. Ultimately, we applied the two-step texturing process to fabricate heterojunction solar cells with the analogous inverted pyramid textured surface, achieving an efficiency of 25.43 %, which is 0.19 % higher than conventional upright pyramid structure cells.