Vertical deposition of ultrafine silver particles on silicon surface out of solutions by silver mirror process

• This paper has provided a facile deposition process of ultrafine silver particles on the surface out of solution.
• The ultrafine silver particles display some advantages including quasi-round shape, uniformity in size, monodisperse distribution and reduction of agglomeration.
• The ultrafine porous Si etched by these ultrafine silver particles increase the antireflection properties in a broader spectra range.

Ultrafine silver particles are deposited on the surface not submerged in solutions by vertical deposition using mirror silver process. The size of particles on the surface out of solutions ranged from 10 to 40 nm. Compared with those on the surface in solutions, these ultrafine silver particles are monodisperse and display good uniformity in shape and size. The achievement of the ultrafine silver particles is attributed to the wetting effect of solid–liquid interface and evaporation of the ethanol solvent. The ultrafine porous silicon structures are obtained by catalysis etching of the ultrafine silver particles, and their reflectance near infrared wave band is decreased, which is useful for solar cell applications.