Elaboration and Characterization of Black Silicon for Photovoltaic Solar Cells

In this work, the optical and morphological properties of black silicon (b-Si) have been investigated. The b-Si was fabricated by Metal-Assisted Chemical Etching (MACE) method. Two-step MACE process was deployed to produce b-Si nanostructures by using silver (Ag) as a catalyst. The b-Si was elaborated with and without KOH post-etching, and the samples prepared without KOH treatment exhibited the lowest average weighted reflectance (AWR) and the highest absorption, especially in violet and near infrared wavelength regions. The SEM images of samples post-etched by KOH solution show the formation of square-like nanostructures with a size varies in the range 20 - 200 nm. While the samples containing b- Si without treatment by KOH solution showed nanostructures with other shapes and different sizes.