Nanostructured Dielectric Layer A New Approach to Design

Nanostructured Solar Cells

Yusi Chen1*, Yangsen Kang1*, Yijie Huo1, Dong Liang2, Jieyang Jia1, Li Zhao3,
Jeremy Kim1, Leon Yao1, Jeremy Bregman1 and James Harris1,3,4
1

Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, US

2

Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, US

Department of Material Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, US
4

Department of Applied Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, US

*These authors contributed equally to this work

Abstract Nanostructures have been widely used in solar cells

due to their extraordinary optical management properties.
However, due to the poor junction quality and large surface
recombination velocity, typical nanostructured solar cells are not
efficient. Here we demonstrate a new approach to design and
fabricate whole-wafer nanostructures on dielectric layer for solar
cell application. The design, simulation, fabrication and
characterization of nanostructured dielectric layer silicon solar
cells are presented. The optical simulation results illustrate that
the periodic nanostructure array on dielectric materials
suppresses the reflection and enhances the absorption over a wide
spectral range. Reflection measurements show that reflection can
be suppressed below 10% for a wide range of solar spectrum and
incident angle. The current density-voltage (J-V) characterization
shows that the short circuit current is improved by 44%. Our
results suggest this nanostructured dielectric layer has the
potential to significantly improve solar cell performance and
avoid typical problems of defects and surface recombination for
nanostructured solar cells, thus providing a new pathway
towards realizing high-efficiency and low-cost solar cells.
Index Terms photovoltaics, nanostructures, light trapping

I. INTRODUCTION
Nanostructures, including nanowires [1-3], nanopyramids
[4-6], nanodomes [7] and nanocones [8-10], have been widely
investigated in solar cells. Such structures have shown very
promising features for effective anti-reflection and light
trapping, which may lead to low cost, high efficiency solar
cells [1-12]. However, despite much effort put into these
structures, how to effectively utilize nanostructures for high
efficiency is still an open question. Compared with traditional
bulk material solar cells [13], nanostructured solar cells [1-12]
show much lower efficiency. In particular, nanostructured Si
solar cells have <19% efficiency for thick cells [13] and <14%
efficiency for thin-film cells [10-11], while commercialized
bulk Si solar cells produce >25% power conversion efficiency
[13] as the mainstream technology in industry. Such results
may be due to the fact that typical nanostructured solar cells
have a nanostructured PN junction or etched surface, resulting
in low PN junction quality and high surface recombination

978-1-4799-4398-2/14/$31.00 2014 IEEE

velocity due to the severe surface damage and large surface

area [9,10,14].
Such problems can be solved using a high quality planar PN
junction and nanostructured semiconductor window layer with
larger energy bandgap to block the flow of minority carriers
towards surface, thus suppressing the bulk and surface
recombination [9]. Although such structures have been applied
to III-V solar cells, however, they have not been successful for
Si, since there is no suitable large bandgap material to form
the window layer, which should have >3eV bandgap to avoid
absorption in it. On the other hand, low cost dielectric
materials with bandgap >3eV, including silicon nitride (SiNx),
titanium dioxide (TiO2) and aluminum oxide (Al2O3) [15],
have been widely used in solar cell industry for high quality
surface passivation. In this work, we demonstrate the design,
simulation, fabrication and characterization of a
nanostructured dielectric layer using SiNx on a high quality
planar PN junction Si solar cell, which may overcome the
challenges of low PN junction quality and large surface
recombination velocity. We also present the complete process
to form a nanostructured dielectric layer. <10% reflection has
been achieved over a wide spectral range and incident angle.
In addition, 44% improvement of power conversion has been
attained compared with a planar Si cell.
II. OPTICAL SIMULATION
To study the effects of nanostructured dielectric layers,
optical simulations were performed using finite-differencetime-domain (FDTD) method in FDTD Solutions from
Lumerical, Inc. The nanostructures simulated were an array of
pyramids on top of Si with a 600nm X 600nm base and 600nm
height, as illustrated in figure 1. The input refractive index of
SiNx was 2.1, which is typical for the material [16]. A virtual
broadband source with wavelengths from 400-1050 nm was
used for illumination at normal incidence. The simulations
were allowed to run until the wave decays to 10-6 of its
original intensity. Data monitors placed on top of the
simulated array measured the reflected light. Perfectly

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matched layers were used in the z-direction to minimize

unwanted reflections, while boundary conditions in the x- and
y-directions were periodic.
From the simulation result in figure 1, nanostructured SiNx
layer array reduces the reflection from >35% to <5% over a
broad spectrum from 400 nm to 1050 nm. In addition, the
results of integrated reflection w.r.t. number of incident
photons per wavelength over AM 1.5G at different incident
angles suggest that the nanostructures could maintain a <5%
overall reflection from normal incidence up to 50 degrees offnormal incidence.
1

w/ nano SiNx

600nm

w/o nano SiNx

0.8
Reflection

600nm

silica nano-sphere residues were removed in 50:1 hydrofluoric

acid. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) picture of a
nano-structure array is shown in figure 2(a). The structures
have a height around 600nm and a periodicity of 600nm.
C. Metalization
After the removal of silica nano-sphere residues, the metal
contacts were formed. First, most of the nanostructures were
protected by photoresist. Then the uncovered area of SiNx was
etched away in 6:1 buffered oxide etchant (BOE). Next,
200nm of Al was deposited on both the front side and backside
of the cell. Finally, the metal on top of photoresist was liftedoff in acetone. A schematic diagram of the final cell structure
is shown in figure 2(b).

(b)

(a)

0.6
0.4

Al

0.2

Si Solar Cell

0
400

Fig. 1.

SiNx

600
800
Wavelength (nm)

1000

Reflection v.s. normal incident light wavelength.

III. DEVICE FABRICATION

A. Solar cell emitter-base junction fabrication
The Si solar cell was fabricated using reduced pressure
chemical vapor deposition (RPCVD) in an Applied Materials
Epi2 system. The deposition was under 1000 using
dichlorosilane (DCS) with phosphine (PH3) and diborane
(B2H6) as the dopants. 1.7 m of 1.51018cm-3 boron doped p
base was first deposited on top of 1.51015cm-3 p- type
substrate. Then a 0.9 m intrinsic layer was deposited. Finally,
a 0.3 m of 1.51019cm-3 phosphorus doped n+ emitter was
deposited.
B. Nanostructured dielectric layer formation
700 nm of SiNx was deposited on top of the solar cell using
a Plasma-Thermal plasma-enhanced chemical vapor
deposition (PECVD) tool under 350. Then the
nanostructures were formed using silica nano-sphere
lithography. Using this method, nanostructures can be made
covering a whole wafer [17]. To fabricate the nanostructures
using this method, 600nm silica nano-spheres were first
assembled into one-monolayer closed-pack film on top of SiNx
via LangmuirBlodgett (LB) coating [18]. Next, using the
silica nano-spheres as an etch mask, electron cyclotron
resonance plasma etching with CF4 and O2 gas was used to
etch down the SiNx and produce nanostructure arrays. Finally,

978-1-4799-4398-2/14/$31.00 2014 IEEE

1m

Al

Fig. 2. (a) A SEM picture of fabricated nanostructured SiNx layer

array. (b) A schematic diagram of fabricated nanostructured SiNx
layer Si solar cell with metal contact.

IV. DEVICE CHARACTERIZATION

Reflection measurements were performed using a standard
integrating sphere system. Incident light entered the sphere
through a small port and illuminates the sample mounted at the
center of the sphere. The reflected light was scattered
uniformly by the interior sphere wall. A silicon detector
mounted at the back of the sphere produced a photocurrent
from all the reflected photons. The measured results under
normal incident light for nanostructured dielectric window
solar cell and its planar control cell are shown in figure 3(a).
The reflection has been suppressed from >35% to <10% over
a wide portion of the solar spectrum. Angular dependent
reflection was also measured, as shown in figure 3(b). The
nanostructured dielectric layer performs well from 10 to 50
degrees, showing a wide-angle anti-reflection effect.
Solar cell current density-voltage (J-V) characteristics were
measured under AM 1.5 G normal illumination (1000 W/m2, 1
sun) at room temperature. A standard solar simulator was used
as the light source whose intensity is monitored by a
certificated solar cell. External quantum efficiency (EQE) was
measured using mechanically chopped monochromatic light
and the photocurrent was measured using a lock-in amplifier.
The light intensity was calibrated with an amplified and
calibrated Si photodetector. Short circuit current density (Jsc)

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was measured based on the un-metalized area and was verified

by integration of the EQE spectrum. The results are shown in
figure 3(c) for J-V and figure 3(d) for EQE. EQE has been
improved to >80% over a large range of the solar spectrum
from <60% of the planar control cell. The nanostructured
dielectric layer cell has a short circuit current (Jsc) of 28.15
mA/cm2, an open circuit voltage (Voc) of 0.57 V, a fill-factor
(FF) of 71.26% and a power conversion efficiency of 11.44%,
as shown in table I. Compared with the planar control cell, the
nanostructured dielectric layer improved the Jsc by 32% and
the power conversion efficiency by 44%. The above
characterization results demonstrate that nanostructured
dielectric layers can improve the light-trapping and antireflection performance of solar cells while still retaining good
electrical properties and PN junction quality that can be seen
from the FF and Voc.
TABLE I
COMPARISON OF SOLAR CELL PERFORMANCE
Jsc (mA/cm2)
Voc (V)
Fill Factor (%)
Efficiency (%)

(a)

0.4

w/ nano SiNx

w/o nano SiNx

0.5

20
10
0
0

w/ nano SiNx

w/o nano SiNx

0.2
0.4
Voltage (V)

0.6

0.3

10 degree
30 degree
50 degree

0.2
0.1

100

(c)

EQE (%)

30

(b)

0
400

600
800
1000
Wavelength (nm)

Current Density (mA/cm )

0
400

w/ Nano SiNx
28.15
0.57
71.26
11.44

Reflection

Reflection

w/o Nano SiNx

21.32
0.54
69.36
8.08

600
800
1000
Wavelength (nm)

(d)

50
w/ nano SiNx

0
400

w/o nano SiNx

600
800
1000
Wavelength (nm)

Fig. 3. (a) Reflection v.s. normal incident light wavelength. (b)

Angular dependent reflection v.s. incident light for nanostructured
SiNx layer cell. (c) J-V characteristics. (d) EQE characteristics.

V. CONCLUSION
In summary, we have demonstrated a systematical analysis
for nanostructured dielectric layer solar cells. A complete large
area, whole-wafer process to form dielectric nanostructured
window layer on Si solar cells is also presented. The

978-1-4799-4398-2/14/$31.00 2014 IEEE

nanostructured dielectric layer on a Si solar cell reduced the

reflection to below 10% over a large range of solar spectrum
and at different incident angles. It has also improved the Jsc by
32% and power conversion efficiency by 44%. Such
performance enhancement proves that nanostructured
dielectric layers can achieve effective light trapping and antireflection. Combining the surface passivation effect of
dielectric materials, nanostructured dielectric layer has great
potential to produce high efficiency and lost cost
nanostructured solar cells.
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