Boosting Short-Circuit Current With Rationally Designed Periodic Si Nanopillar Surface Texturing for Solar Cells

Large-scale rationally designed periodic Si nanopillar (SiNP) arrays of varying diameters and heights have been fabricated by a top-down method. The impacts of the structural parameters (e.g., diameter/periodicity/height) on the reflectance and absorption of the SiNP array have been extensively studied, and the results are in agreement with our theoretical prediction of Li et al. Owing to the notably enhanced light absorption of the optimized SiNP array, a short-circuit current density J_sc of 34.3 mA/cm² was obtained on an axial p-n SiNP array surface-textured solar cell, which is the highest to date among reported Si nanowire/SiNP-based solar cells. J_sc is significantly boosted compared to that of the untextured solar cell (18.1 mA/cm²), which implies that the SiNP array is a promising texturing technology for thin-film photovoltaic application.