Post cleaning effects on silicon nanowires grown by electroless etching

Abstract

Low optical reflectance in silicon nanowires (SiNWs) is obtained when a stirring mechanism is introduced during the post-cleaning process. Achieving low optical reflectance may be of great interest for the production of solar cells. These SiNWs were fabricated at room temperature employing the electroless etching technique using an etching solution consisting of silver nitrate and hydrofluoric acid. Experiments show that residual silver dendrites left in the SiNWs array during the electroless etching process may interfere with the reflectance. The results exhibit an optical reflectance in SiNWs as low as 0.7 %.