Influence of Fabrication Processes and Annealing Treatment on the Minority Carrier Lifetime of Silicon Nanowire Films
Abstract Surface passivation and bulk carrier lifetime of silicon nanowires (SiNWs) are essential for their application in solar cell devices. The effective minority carrier lifetime of a semiconductor material is influenced by both its surface passivation and bulk carrier lifetime. We found that th...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
SpringerOpen
2017-03-01
|
| Series: | Nanoscale Research Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s11671-017-2006-z |
| Summary: | Abstract Surface passivation and bulk carrier lifetime of silicon nanowires (SiNWs) are essential for their application in solar cell devices. The effective minority carrier lifetime of a semiconductor material is influenced by both its surface passivation and bulk carrier lifetime. We found that the effective carrier lifetime of SiNWs passivated with aluminum oxide (Al2O3) was significantly influenced by the fabrication process of SiNWs. We could not measure the effective lifetime of SiNWs fabricated by thermal annealing of amorphous silicon nanowires. Nevertheless, the SiNWs fabricated by metal-assisted chemical etching of polycrystalline silicon displayed an effective lifetime of 2.86 μs. Thermal annealing of SiNWs at 400 °C in a forming gas improved the effective carrier lifetime from 2.86 to 15.9 μs because of the improvement in surface passivation at the interface between the SiNWs and Al2O3 layers. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1931-7573 1556-276X |