IUVSTA 15th International Vacuum Congress (IVC-15), AVS 48th International Symposium (AVS-48), 11th International Conference on Solid Surfaces (ICSS-11)
    Surface Science Tuesday Sessions
       Session SS+SC-TuP

Paper SS+SC-TuP7
The Effects of the Microstructure Factor in Chemical Texturization of Crystalline Si Solar Cells

Tuesday, October 30, 2001, 5:30 pm, Room 134/135

Session: Semiconductor Deposition Poster Session
Presenter: F. Krok, Jagiellonian University, Poland
Authors: F. Krok, Jagiellonian University, Poland
Z. Swiatek, Polish Academy of Science
E. Beltowska-Lehman, Polish Academy of Science
M. Szymonski, Jagiellonian University, Poland
Correspondent: Click to Email
The texturization of the silicon solar cell front surface improves the cell efficiency due to its antireflection properties and light trapping effect. The chemical texturization of single grains in well-defined multi-crystalline Si wafers was performed in a standard alkaline (anisotropic etching) as well as in acid (isotropic etching) solutions. The microstructure of textured wafers was investigated using SEM, TEM, and NC-AFM methods. The crystallographic orientation of each grain was determined by means of electron back scattered diffraction (EBSD) technique. It comprises the analysis of detected Kikuchi patterns, observed in the SEM. The texturization in alkaline etching solutions causes development of steps between particular grains because of different etching rate in different crystal plane orientation in the wafers. In these cases, although the grains were textured, the grain boundaries became developed and steps were observed. Depending on the grain initial crystallographic orientation (hkl) and the individual disorientation, different final morphologies have been observed. Based on the NC-AFM measurements, the nanostructural nature of the texturized surface was evident for some grain orientations. Moreover, these nanocrystals (ca. 20 nm) have a well-defined preferred crystallographic orientation. The texturized surface with good homogeneity of particular grain orientations of m-c Si has been achieved. The final morphology of the texturized m-cSi surface strongly depends on the process parameters as well as on the polar and azimuthal disorientation of the grain.