Facile Synthesis of Silicon Micropillar Arrays Using Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography and Ag-Assisted Chemical Etching Method

Abstract

A novel strategy for preparing large area, ordered, and highly consistent 5 μm diameter micropillar arrays on the silicon surface was generated by using extreme ultraviolet lithography and the Ag-assisted chemical etching method. In the whole chemical etching process, the application of the catalytic properties of Ag nanoparticles was very important. Furthermore, we have also investigated the optimal combined light-trapping structure with the addition of 20 nm diameter Ag nanoparticle arrays on the surface film of the a-Si:H solar cell, in which the periodicity of the Ag nanoparticle array is set as 20 nm and the thickness of the p region, i region, and n region is set as 291, 400, and 50 nm, respectively. The physical properties for Ag nanoparticles have been expounded in detail.