Ag Nanowire @ Nano-groove Fabrication for Enhanced Light Harvesting Through Silicon Chemical Etching

摘要

Chemical etching was employed to fabricate Ag nanowire @ nano-grooves on silicon to increase light harvesting. Ag nanowire @ nano-groove structures (300 nm to 1.7 mu m in size) were obtained by controlling the etching time. A significant increase in the surface roughness was achieved around the Ag nanowire @ grooves with an etching time of 10-30 min. According to finite difference time domain simulations, a significant increase in both the light intensity and light path length were observed with the Ag nanowire @ nano-groove nano-structures on the silicon substrate. Increasing the opening sizes of the grooves to similar to 255 nm and the roughness of the Ag nanowire and groove surface to similar to 30 nm further enhanced the light harvesting abilities. This work not only provides a deeper insight into metal assisted silicon etching, but also indicates a possible way to enhance the light harvesting abilities of thin film solar cells.