One-Step Fabrication of Inverted Pyramid Textured Silicon Wafers via Silver-Assisted Chemical Etching Combing with Synergism of Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP)

Inverted pyramid-texturing of silicon surface has been proven to have great application potential in silicon solar cells. In this paper, we utilized Ag-assisted chemical etching (Ag–ACE) technology combing with polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) to fabricate an inverted pyramid textured Si surface. We call...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Yuchen Liu, Kousuo Dong, Linsheng Bian, Zisheng Guan
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2021-04-01
Series:Crystals
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4352/11/5/459
Description
Summary:Inverted pyramid-texturing of silicon surface has been proven to have great application potential in silicon solar cells. In this paper, we utilized Ag-assisted chemical etching (Ag–ACE) technology combing with polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) to fabricate an inverted pyramid textured Si surface. We call it Ag@PVP–ACE. The effect of different experimental parameters on etching results was observed. We show that the microstructure of the Si surface exhibited two states as the concentration of NH<sub>4</sub>HF<sub>2</sub> and PVP concentration changed: polishing and inverted pyramid texturing. Meanwhile, we found inverted pyramids easier to form at the high temperature and low H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub> concentration of the etching system. Consequently, compared to inverted pyramid structures fabricated by nanostructure rebuilding (NSR) technology and Ag@PVP–ACE, we consider that Ag@PVP–ACE technology could become a viable strategy for fabricating inverted pyramid textured Si wafers in Si solar cells production.
ISSN:2073-4352