Chemical surface passivation of silicon nanowires grown by APCVD

Silicon nanowires (SiNWs) are attractive candidate for solar cells and surface passivation has been recognized an important fabrication steps solar cells. The SiNWs were grown on p-type Si (1 0 0) substrate by atmospheric pressure chemical vapour deposition. Field emission scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy were used to study the atomic bonding and microstructural aspect of silicon nanowires. Hydrogen and chlorine passivation were carried out by dilute HF and HCl solutions. The transient photoconductance decay and effective lifetime of SiNWs/c-Si were study by microwave photoconductance decay. The effective lifetime of SiNWs/p-Si were observed in between 0.5 and 0.8 μs.