Optimal design of an antireflection coating structure for enhancing the energy-conversion efficiency of a silicon nanostructure solar cell

In this paper, we present our investigation of the optical and electrical characteristics of silicon solar cells using silicon nanowire, silicon nanocone, silicon nanopillar, and silicon nanopillar/silicon nitride structures, which were obtained by the Ag-assisted electroless etching method and ICP etching with extreme ultraviolet lithography. We introduced the formation mechanism for four kinds of solar cells. We simulated the absorption of four structures for different parameters. Furthermore, we also performed current density–voltage (J–V) characterization of the samples with silicon nitride, which exhibited an improvement of the power conversion efficiency (PCE) in contrast to the samples without silicon nitride. It was found that the properties of trapping light for silicon nitride had a prominent impact on the improvement of the PCE in the silicon nanopillar solar cells.

We introduced ICP method for two kinds of Si-cell arrays: silicon nanocones and nanopillars. Silicon nanowire arrays were prepared by the Ag-assisted chemical etching method. We experimentally demonstrated the J–V characterization of three structures.