A low-cost, large area, random, maskless texturing scheme independent of crystal orientation isexpected to significantly improve the terrestrial photovoltaic technology. We investigated silicon surfacemicrostructures formed by reactive ion etching (RIE) using a multi-hollow cathode system. Desirable texturingeffect has been achieved when radio-frequency rf power of about 20 Watt per one hollow cathode glow was appliedin our rf multi-hollow cathode system. The black silicon etched surface shows almost zero reflectance in the visibleregion as well as in near IR region. Photoluminescence study on the surface has been done and the results arereported in this paper. The etched silicon surface is covered by columnar microstructures with diameters from 50 to100 nm and depth of about 500 nm. We have successfully fabricated mono-crystalline silicon solar cells having anefficiency of 11.7% and multi-crystalline silicon solar cells with efficiency of 10.2%.
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