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Indexed by:Journal Papers

Date of Publication:2015-12-01

Journal:APPLIED SURFACE SCIENCE

Included Journals:SCIE、EI

Volume:357

Page Number:1830-1835

ISSN No.:0169-4332

Key Words:Solar cell; Black silicon; Nanostructure; TMAH modificationa

Abstract:Traditional black silicon solar cells show relatively low efficiencies due to the high surface recombination occurring at the front surfaces. In this paper, we present a surface modification process to suppress surface recombination and fabricate highly efficient industrial black silicon solar cells. The Ag-nanoparticle-assisted etching is applied to realize front surface nanostructures on silicon wafers in order to reduce the surface reflectance. Through a further tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) treatment, the carrier recombination at and near the surface is greatly suppressed, due to a lower surface dopant concentration after the surface modification. This modified surface presents a low reflectivity in a range of 350-1100 nm. Large-area solar cells with an average conversion efficiency of 19.03% are achieved by using the TMAH treatment of 30 s. This efficiency is 0.18% higher than that of standard silicon solar cells with pyramidal surfaces, and also a remarkable improvement compared with black silicon solar cells without TMAH modifications. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.