Nano-Structured Silicon: Fabrication, Optical Property, Defect States and Device Application

Abstract:

We use two different methods to fabricate nanostructured silicon on the surface of C-Si: femtosecond laser etching (FLE) and deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) combined with plasma immersion ion implantation (PIII). Nanocone silicon arrays of dense and random distribution are obtained by FLE. Meanwhile, cylindroid silicon nanostructures of excellent regularity and uniform coverage are achieved by DRIE. These nanostructured silicon materials show a remarkable enhancement on absorptance at near-infrared wavelength. Moreover, the minority carriers lifetime measurement is also carried out to evaluate defect states caused by two etching processes and their influence on semiconductor physical effects. A Si-PIN photoelectronic detector with nanostructured silicon at the back surface exhibits high near-infrared responsivity. These novel results may have a potential application in near-infrared photoelectronic devices.

• Periodical: Materials Science Forum (Volume 947)
• Pages: 66-70
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/MSF.947.66
• Online since: March 2019
• Authors: Hao Zhong, Dong Yang Li, Yu Hao Song, Wei Li*, Xiang Dong Jiang, Ya Dong Jiang
• Keywords: Minority Carrier Lifetime, Nano-Structured Silicon, Near-Infrared Absorptance, Photoelectronic Detector

References

[1] Peng K Q, Wang X, Li L, et al. Silicon nanowires for advanced energy conversion and storage. Nano Today, 2013, 8(1): 75-97.

DOI: 10.1016/j.nantod.2012.12.009

[2] Beard M C, Knutsen K P, Yu P, et al. Multiple exciton generation in colloidal silicon nanocrystals. Nano letters, 2007, 7(8): 2506-2512.

DOI: 10.1021/nl071486l

[3] Kang Z, Liu Y, Tsang C H A, et al. Water‐soluble silicon quantum dots with wavelength‐tunable photoluminescence. Advanced Materials, 2009, 21(6): 661-664.

DOI: 10.1002/adma.200801642

[4] Peng K Q, Wang X, Li L, et al. High-performance silicon nanohole solar cells. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2010, 132(20): 6872-6873.

DOI: 10.1021/ja910082y

[5] Yu P, Wu J, Liu S, et al. Design and fabrication of silicon nanowires towards efficient solar cells. Nano Today, 2016, 11(6): 704-737.

DOI: 10.1016/j.nantod.2016.10.001

[6] Crouch C H, Carey J E, Warrender J M, et al. Comparison of structure and properties of femtosecond and nanosecond laser-structured silicon. Applied Physics Letters, 2004, 84(11): 1850-1852.

DOI: 10.1063/1.1667004

[7] Crouch C H, Carey J E, Shen M, et al. Infrared absorption by sulfur-doped silicon formed by femtosecond laser irradiation. Applied Physics A, 2004, 79(7): 1635-1641.

DOI: 10.1007/s00339-004-2676-0

[8] Ma Z, Jiang C, Yuan W, et al. Large-scale patterning of hydrophobic silicon nanostructure arrays fabricated by dual lithography and deep reactive ion etching. Nano-Micro Letters, 2013, 5(1): 7-12.

DOI: 10.1007/bf03353725

[9] Chan Y C, Lee Y K, Zohar Y. High-throughput design and fabrication of an integrated microsystem with high aspect-ratio sub-micron pillar arrays for free-solution micro capillary electrophoresis. Journal of micromechanics and microengineering, 2006, 16(4): 699.

DOI: 10.1088/0960-1317/16/4/005

[10] Sun G, Gao T, Zhao X, et al. Fabrication of micro/nano dual-scale structures by improved deep reactive ion etching. Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, 2010, 20(7): 075028.

DOI: 10.1088/0960-1317/20/7/075028

[11] Sinitskii A, Neumeier S, Nelles J, et al. Ordered arrays of silicon pillars with controlled height and aspect ratio. Nanotechnology, 2007, 18(30): 305307.

DOI: 10.1088/0957-4484/18/30/305307

[12] Garnett E, Yang P. Light trapping in silicon nanowire solar cells. Nano letters, 2010, 10(3): 1082-1087.

DOI: 10.1021/nl100161z

[13] Wang R P. Defects in silicon nanowires. Applied physics letters, 2006, 88(14): 142104.

[14] Kajjam S, Konduri S, Dalal V L. Influence of oxygen contamination on minority carrier lifetime and defect density in nanocrystalline Si. Applied Physics Letters, 2013, 103(9): 093506.

DOI: 10.1063/1.4819204

[15] Zhong H, Guo A, Guo G, et al. The enhanced light absorptance and device application of nanostructured black silicon fabricated by metal-assisted chemical etching. Nanoscale research letters, 2016, 11(1): 322.

DOI: 10.1186/s11671-016-1528-0

[16] Carey J E. Femtosecond-laser microstructuring of silicon for novel optoelectronic devices. Harvard University, (2004).

[17] Mazur E, Franta B, Pastor D, et al. Laser doping and texturing of silicon for advanced optoelectronic devices//Lasers and Electro-Optics Pacific Rim (CLEO-PR), 2015 11th Conference on. IEEE, 2015, 1: 1-2.

DOI: 10.1109/cleopr.2015.7375844