Nanopore-type black silicon anti-reflection layers fabricated by a one-step silver-assisted chemical etching

An effective and economical fabrication process for the synthesis of nanopore-type “black silicon”, that significantly decreases reflectivity of silicon wafer surfaces, is reported using a room temperature one-step Ag-assisted chemical etching method. The effects on the surface morphology and the corresponding surface reflectivity of the concentration of the silver catalyst (500, 50, and 5 μM), the HF and H2O2 concentration in the silicon etchant, the HF : H2O2 ratio, and etching time have been investigated. Lower reflectivity is a balance between sufficient silver catalyst to create large numbers of nanopores on a silicon surface and excessive silver that brings deeply etched channels that would potentially short-circuit a solar cell junction. The lowest relative effective reflectivity (0.17% over a range of 300–1000 nm) occurs with a silver ion concentration of 50 μM, however, with the silver ion concentration decreases to 5 μM surfaces with a low relative effective reflectivity (2.60%) and a short nanopore length (<250 nm) can be obtained with 10 minute etching time, indicating that this method can be used as a simple (one-pot), low cost (low silver concentration), energy efficient (room temperature), method for the synthesis of anti-reflection layers for silicon-based solar cell applications.