Tunable Nanostructuration of Si by MACE with Pt nanoparticles under an applied external bias

Stéphane Bastide (1) , Encarnacion Torralba-Penalver (1) , Christine Cachet-Vivier (1) , Sylvain Le Gall (2) , Raphaël Lachaume (2) , Mathieu Halbwax (3) , Vincent Magnin (3) , Joseph El Harari (3) , Jean-Pierre Vilcot (3)

1 ICMPE - Institut de Chimie et des Matériaux Paris-Est
2 GeePs - Laboratoire Génie électrique et électronique de Paris
3 IEMN - Institut d’Électronique, de Microélectronique et de Nanotechnologie - UMR 8520

We present a study on metal assisted chemical etching of p-type c-Si with Pt nanoparticles, performed under controlled polarization of the Si sample in a 3-electrodes electrochemical setup. OCP measurements combined with impedance spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry allow to give physical insights in the MACE process. In addition, the application of an external polarization during etching results in a straightforward control of the pore morphology, ranging from straight mesopores to cone-shaped macropores as the Si sample is positively biased. The latter morphology leads to a reduction of the surface reflectivity below 5% which compares favorably with state of the art texturization techniques for Si solar cells.

Domains: Physics [physics]; Condensed Matter [cond-mat]; Materials Science [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

Stéphane Bastide, Encarnacion Torralba-Penalver, Christine Cachet-Vivier, Sylvain Le Gall, Raphaël Lachaume, et al.. Tunable Nanostructuration of Si by MACE with Pt nanoparticles under an applied external bias. 10th Conference of Porous Semiconductor Science and Technology (PSST) , Mar 2016, Tarragone, Spain. ⟨hal-01579288⟩