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- Title
Influence of Fabrication Processes and Annealing Treatment on the Minority Carrier Lifetime of Silicon Nanowire Films.
- Authors
Kato, Shinya; Yamazaki, Tatsuya; Kurokawa, Yasuyoshi; Miyajima, Shinsuke; Konagai, Makoto
- Abstract
Surface passivation and bulk carrier lifetime of silicon nanowires (SiNWs) are essential for their application in solar cell devices. The effective minority carrier lifetime of a semiconductor material is influenced by both its surface passivation and bulk carrier lifetime. We found that the effective carrier lifetime of SiNWs passivated with aluminum oxide (AlO) was significantly influenced by the fabrication process of SiNWs. We could not measure the effective lifetime of SiNWs fabricated by thermal annealing of amorphous silicon nanowires. Nevertheless, the SiNWs fabricated by metal-assisted chemical etching of polycrystalline silicon displayed an effective lifetime of 2.86 μs. Thermal annealing of SiNWs at 400 °C in a forming gas improved the effective carrier lifetime from 2.86 to 15.9 μs because of the improvement in surface passivation at the interface between the SiNWs and AlO layers.
- Subjects
ANNEALING of metals; SILICON nanowires; SOLAR cells; ALUMINUM oxide; SURFACE passivation; FABRICATION (Manufacturing)
- Publication
Nanoscale Research Letters, 2017, Vol 12, Issue 1, p1
- ISSN
1931-7573
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1186/s11671-017-2006-z