Wafer-scale silicon antireflection by realizing tapered silicon nanowires with simple wet etching

Silicon antireflection is realized with short and aligned SiNWs by using simple wet etching techniques. The use of short SiNWs as the antireflective material is favored over tall SiNWs since it can provide sufficiently low surface reflection with faster process time but avoid the sub-bandgap absorption and more complicated procedures for applying to make devices like solar cells. A post tip-sharpening process by wet chemical etching is developed to realize tapered nano structure to further reduce the surface reflection. This technique is very promising for practical applications in wafer-scale solar cell manufacturing.