Black silicon is a semiconductor material, a surface modification of silicon with very low reflectivity and correspondingly high absorption of visible (and infrared) light.
The modification was discovered in the 1980s as an unwanted side effect of reactive ion etching (RIE). [1] [2] Other methods for forming a similar structure include electrochemical etching, stain etching, metal-assisted chemical etching, and laser treatment.
Black silicon has become a major asset to the solar photovoltaic industry as it enables greater light to electricity conversion efficiency [3] of standard crystalline silicon solar cells, which significantly reduces their costs. [4]
Black silicon is a needle-shaped surface structure where needles are made of single-crystal silicon and have a height above 10 µm and diameter less than 1 µm. [2] Its main feature is an increased absorption of incident light—the high reflectivity of the silicon, which is usually 20–30% for quasi-normal incidence, is reduced to about 5%. This is due to the formation of a so-called effective medium [5] by the needles. Within this medium, there is no sharp interface, but a continuous change of the refractive index that reduces Fresnel reflection. When the depth of the graded layer is roughly equal to the wavelength of light in silicon (about one-quarter the wavelength in vacuum) the reflection is reduced to 5%; deeper grades produce even blacker silicon. [6] For low reflectivity, the nanoscale features producing the index graded layer must be smaller than the wavelength of the incident light to avoid scattering. [6]
The unusual optical characteristics, combined with the semiconducting properties of silicon make this material interesting for sensor applications. Potential applications include: [7]
In semiconductor technology, reactive-ion etching (RIE) is a standard procedure for producing trenches and holes with a depth of up to several hundred micrometres and very high aspect ratios. In Bosch process RIE, this is achieved by repeatedly switching between an etching and passivation. With cryogenic RIE, the low temperature and oxygen gas achieve this sidewall passivation by forming SiO
2, easily removed from the bottom by directional ions. Both RIE methods can produce black silicon, but the morphology of the resulting structure differs substantially. The switching between etching and passivation of the Bosch process creates undulated sidewalls, which are visible also on the black silicon formed this way.
During etching, however, small debris remain on the substrate; they mask the ion beam and produce structures that are not removed and in the following etching and passivation steps result in tall silicon pillars. [33] The process can be set so that a million needles are formed on an area of one square millimeter. [15]
In 1999, a Harvard University group led by Eric Mazur developed a process in which black silicon was produced by irradiating silicon with femtosecond laser pulses. [34] After irradiation in the presence of a gas containing sulfur hexafluoride and other dopants, the surface of silicon develops a self-organized microscopic structure of micrometer-sized cones. The resulting material has many remarkable properties, such as absorption that extends to the infrared range, below the band gap of silicon, including wavelengths for which ordinary silicon is transparent. sulfur atoms are forced to the silicon surface, creating a structure with a lower band gap and therefore the ability to absorb longer wavelengths.
Similar surface modification can be achieved in vacuum using the same type of laser and laser processing conditions. In this case, the individual silicon cones lack sharp tips (see image). The reflectivity of such a micro-structured surface is very low, 3–14% in the spectral range 350–1150 nm. [35] Such reduction in reflectivity is contributed by the cone geometry, which increases the light internal reflections between them. Hence, the possibility of light absorption is increased. The gain in absorption achieved by fs laser texturization was superior to that achieved by using an alkaline chemical etch method, [36] which is a standard industrial approach for surface texturing of mono-crystalline silicon wafers in solar cell manufacturing. Such surface modification is independent of local crystalline orientation. A uniform texturing effect can be achieved across the surface of a multi-crystalline silicon wafer. The very steep angles lower the reflection to near zero and also increase the probability of recombination, keeping it from use in solar cells.
When a mix of copper nitrate, phosphorous acid, hydrogen fluoride and water are applied to a silicon wafer, the phosphorous acid reduction reduces the copper ions to copper nanoparticles. The nanoparticles attract electrons from the wafer's surface, oxidizing it and allowing the hydrogen fluoride to burn inverted pyramid-shaped nanopores into the silicon. The process produced pores as small as 590 nm that let through more than 99% of light. [37]
Black silicon can also be produced by chemical etching using a process called Metal-Assisted Chemical Etching (MACE). [38] [39] [40] [41]
When the material is biased by a small electric voltage, absorbed photons are able to excite dozens of electrons. The sensitivity of black silicon detectors is 100–500 times higher than that of untreated silicon (conventional silicon), in both the visible and infrared spectra. [42] [43]
A group at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory reported black silicon solar cells with 18.2% efficiency. [19] This black silicon anti-reflective surface was formed by a metal-assisted etch process using nano particles of silver. In May 2015, researchers from Finland's Aalto University, working with researchers from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya announced they had created black silicon solar cells with 22.1% efficiency [44] [45] by applying a thin passivating film on the nanostructures by Atomic Layer Deposition, and by integrating all metal contacts on the back side of the cell.
A team led by Elena Ivanova at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne discovered in 2012 [46] that cicada wings were potent killers of Pseudomonas aeruginosa , an opportunist germ that also infects humans and is becoming resistant to antibiotics. The effect came from regularly-spaced "nanopillars" on which bacteria were sliced to shreds as they settled on the surface.
Both cicada wings and black silicon were put through their paces in a lab, and both were bactericidal. Smooth to human touch, the surfaces destroyed Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, as well as bacterial spores.
The three targeted bacterial species were P. aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis , a wide-ranging soil germ that is a cousin of anthrax.
The killing rate was 450,000 bacteria per square centimetre per minute over the first three hours of exposure or 810 times the minimum dose needed to infect a person with S. aureus, and 77,400 times that of P. aeruginosa. However, it was later proven that the quantification protocol of Ivanova's team was not suitable for these kind of antibacterial surfaces.
Gallium arsenide (GaAs) is a III-V direct band gap semiconductor with a zinc blende crystal structure.
Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially used for electricity generation and as photosensors.
Photodetectors, also called photosensors, are sensors of light or other electromagnetic radiation. There are a wide variety of photodetectors which may be classified by mechanism of detection, such as photoelectric or photochemical effects, or by various performance metrics, such as spectral response. Semiconductor-based photodetectors typically use a p–n junction that converts photons into charge. The absorbed photons make electron–hole pairs in the depletion region. Photodiodes and photo transistors are a few examples of photo detectors. Solar cells convert some of the light energy absorbed into electrical energy.
A dye-sensitized solar cell is a low-cost solar cell belonging to the group of thin film solar cells. It is based on a semiconductor formed between a photo-sensitized anode and an electrolyte, a photoelectrochemical system. The modern version of a dye solar cell, also known as the Grätzel cell, was originally co-invented in 1988 by Brian O'Regan and Michael Grätzel at UC Berkeley and this work was later developed by the aforementioned scientists at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) until the publication of the first high efficiency DSSC in 1991. Michael Grätzel has been awarded the 2010 Millennium Technology Prize for this invention.
An epitaxial wafer is a wafer of semiconducting material made by epitaxial growth (epitaxy) for use in photonics, microelectronics, spintronics, or photovoltaics. The epi layer may be the same material as the substrate, typically monocrystaline silicon, or it may be a silicon dioxide (SoI) or a more exotic material with specific desirable qualities. The purpose of epitaxy is to perfect the crystal structure over the bare substrate below and improve the wafer surface's electrical characteristics, making it suitable for highly complex microprocessors and memory devices.
A solar cell or photovoltaic cell is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by means of the photovoltaic effect. It is a form of photoelectric cell, a device whose electrical characteristics vary when it is exposed to light. Individual solar cell devices are often the electrical building blocks of photovoltaic modules, known colloquially as "solar panels". The common single-junction silicon solar cell can produce a maximum open-circuit voltage of approximately 0.5 to 0.6 volts.
Plasma cleaning is the removal of impurities and contaminants from surfaces through the use of an energetic plasma or dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma created from gaseous species. Gases such as argon and oxygen, as well as mixtures such as air and hydrogen/nitrogen are used. The plasma is created by using high frequency voltages to ionise the low pressure gas, although atmospheric pressure plasmas are now also common.
A quantum dot solar cell (QDSC) is a solar cell design that uses quantum dots as the captivating photovoltaic material. It attempts to replace bulk materials such as silicon, copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) or cadmium telluride (CdTe). Quantum dots have bandgaps that are adjustable across a wide range of energy levels by changing their size. In bulk materials, the bandgap is fixed by the choice of material(s). This property makes quantum dots attractive for multi-junction solar cells, where a variety of materials are used to improve efficiency by harvesting multiple portions of the solar spectrum.
As the world's energy demand continues to grow, the development of more efficient and sustainable technologies for generating and storing energy is becoming increasingly important. According to Dr. Wade Adams from Rice University, energy will be the most pressing problem facing humanity in the next 50 years and nanotechnology has potential to solve this issue. Nanotechnology, a relatively new field of science and engineering, has shown promise to have a significant impact on the energy industry. Nanotechnology is defined as any technology that contains particles with one dimension under 100 nanometers in length. For scale, a single virus particle is about 100 nanometers wide.
A definition in semiconductor physics, carrier lifetime is defined as the average time it takes for a minority carrier to recombine. The process through which this is done is typically known as minority carrier recombination.
An organic solar cell (OSC) or plastic solar cell is a type of photovoltaic that uses organic electronics, a branch of electronics that deals with conductive organic polymers or small organic molecules, for light absorption and charge transport to produce electricity from sunlight by the photovoltaic effect. Most organic photovoltaic cells are polymer solar cells.
Thin-film solar cells are made by depositing one or more thin layers of photovoltaic material onto a substrate, such as glass, plastic or metal. Thin-film solar cells are typically a few nanometers (nm) to a few microns (µm) thick–much thinner than the wafers used in conventional crystalline silicon (c-Si) based solar cells, which can be up to 200 µm thick. Thin-film solar cells are commercially used in several technologies, including cadmium telluride (CdTe), copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS), and amorphous thin-film silicon.
Crystalline silicon or (c-Si) Is the crystalline forms of silicon, either polycrystalline silicon, or monocrystalline silicon. Crystalline silicon is the dominant semiconducting material used in photovoltaic technology for the production of solar cells. These cells are assembled into solar panels as part of a photovoltaic system to generate solar power from sunlight.
Solar-cell efficiency refers to the portion of energy in the form of sunlight that can be converted via photovoltaics into electricity by the solar cell.
Potential graphene applications include lightweight, thin, and flexible electric/photonics circuits, solar cells, and various medical, chemical and industrial processes enhanced or enabled by the use of new graphene materials.
A perovskite solar cell (PSC) is a type of solar cell that includes a perovskite-structured compound, most commonly a hybrid organic–inorganic lead or tin halide-based material as the light-harvesting active layer. Perovskite materials, such as methylammonium lead halides and all-inorganic cesium lead halide, are cheap to produce and simple to manufacture.
Amorphous silicon (a-Si) is the non-crystalline form of silicon used for solar cells and thin-film transistors in LCDs.
Silicon nanowires, also referred to as SiNWs, are a type of semiconductor nanowire most often formed from a silicon precursor by etching of a solid or through catalyzed growth from a vapor or liquid phase. Such nanowires have promising applications in lithium ion batteries, thermoelectrics and sensors. Initial synthesis of SiNWs is often accompanied by thermal oxidation steps to yield structures of accurately tailored size and morphology.
Timeline of sustainable energy research 2020- documents increases in renewable energy, solar energy, and nuclear energy, particularly for ways that are sustainable within the Solar System.
Heterojunction solar cells (HJT), variously known as Silicon heterojunctions (SHJ) or Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin Layer (HIT), are a family of photovoltaic cell technologies based on a heterojunction formed between semiconductors with dissimilar band gaps. They are a hybrid technology, combining aspects of conventional crystalline solar cells with thin-film solar cells.