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Fabrication and Doping Methods for Silicon Nano‐ and Micropillar Arrays for Solar‐Cell Applications: A Review
Author(s) -
Elbersen Rick,
Vijselaar Wouter,
Tiggelaar Roald M.,
Gardeniers Han,
Huskens Jurriaan
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
advanced materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.707
H-Index - 527
eISSN - 1521-4095
pISSN - 0935-9648
DOI - 10.1002/adma.201502632
Subject(s) - materials science , nanopillar , doping , silicon , microelectronics , fabrication , optoelectronics , microfabrication , nanotechnology , solar cell , nano , photovoltaics , micrometer , photovoltaic system , nanostructure , optics , electrical engineering , medicine , alternative medicine , engineering , pathology , physics , composite material
Silicon is one of the main components of commercial solar cells and is used in many other solar‐light‐harvesting devices. The overall efficiency of these devices can be increased by the use of structured surfaces that contain nanometer‐ to micrometer‐sized pillars with radial p/n junctions. High densities of such structures greatly enhance the light‐absorbing properties of the device, whereas the 3D p/n junction geometry shortens the diffusion length of minority carriers and diminishes recombination. Due to the vast silicon nano‐ and microfabrication toolbox that exists nowadays, many versatile methods for the preparation of such highly structured samples are available. Furthermore, the formation of p/n junctions on structured surfaces is possible by a variety of doping techniques, in large part transferred from microelectronic circuit technology. The right choice of doping method, to achieve good control of junction depth and doping level, can contribute to an improvement of the overall efficiency that can be obtained in devices for energy applications. A review of the state‐of‐the‐art of the fabrication and doping of silicon micro and nanopillars is presented here, as well as of the analysis of the properties and geometry of thus‐formed 3D‐structured p/n junctions.