Selective etching of Si, SiGe, Ge and its usage for increasing the efficiency of silicon solar cells

Abstract

Dependences of the etch rates for KOH and HF:H2O2:CH3COOH solutions on SiGe layer composition were investigated. The obtained results has been proposed to use for formation of the submicron relief on the silicon surface via selective etching of the structures with Ge(Si) self-assembled nanoislands. In the framework of the proposed approach the Ge(Si) nanoislands serve as a mask for selective etching of Si in a mixture of an aqueous solution of KOH with isopropyl alcohol, followed by the islands removal from the surface by the selective etching in HF:H2O2:CH3COOH. It was demonstrated experimentally that such approach allows to produce the submicron relief on a silicon surface, which leads to the significant decrease of the reflectivity in a wide spectral range. It is believed that the proposed method of surface relief formation can be used to improve the efficiency of the thin-film solar cells based on the crystalline silicon.