Fabrication of hierarchical anti-reflective structures using polystyrene sphere lithography on an as-cut p-Si substrate

Abstract

The broadband anti-reflective (AR) properties of hierarchical structures (HSs) have attracted considerable attention in recent years as a means to reduce Fresnel reflection in photovoltaic solar cell materials. This study employed polystyrene sphere lithography in conjunction with high density plasma dry etching in the fabrication of pure sub-wavelength structures and HSs on an as-cut p-Si substrate. Etching parameters, such as RF power, O2, and etching time, were adjusted to alter the surface morphology. Experiment results demonstrate that the resulting hierarchical paraboloidal structures suppress average reflectance to below 0.5% across a spectral range of 500–1000nm.