Self-Assembled Wire Arrays and ITO Contacts for Silicon Nanowire Solar Cell Applications

Self-assembly of silicon nanowire (SiNW) arrays is studied using SF₆/O₂ plasma treatment. The self-assembly method can be applied to single- and poly-crystalline Si substrates. Plasma conditions can control the length and diameter of the SiNW arrays. Lower reflectance of the wire arrays over the wavelength range 200–1100 nm is obtained. The conducting transparent indium-tin-oxide (ITO) electrode can be fully coated on the self-assembled SiNW arrays by sputtering. The ITO-coated SiNW solar cells show the same low surface light reflectance and a higher carrier collection efficiency than SiNW solar cells without ITO coating. An efficiency enhancement of around 3 times for ITO coated SiNW solar cells is demonstrated via experiments.