Characterization of Si nanowires synthesized using metal-assisted wet-chemical etching

Abstract

A synthesis of vertical silicon nanowire array through metal-assisted chemical etching of highly doped p-type silicon wafers (100) in a solution of hydrofluoric acid and silver nitrate has been proposed. . The influences of the growth parameters such as solution concentration, etching time have been investigated. In addition, we consider other common parameters like wafer resistivity and temperature, which rely on the silicon nanowires formation. The results indicate that the silicon nanowires retain the single crystalline structure and crystallographic orientation of the starting silicon wafer. Furthermore, They provide excellent antireflection property with a low reflection loss of 3% for incident light within the wavelength range of 200–900 nm. Such nanowire arrays may have potential applications as antireflection surface for silicon solar cells