Electrical properties improvement of multicrystalline silicon solar cells using a combination of porous silicon and vanadium oxide treatment

► Passivation of multicrystalline silicon front surface and grain boundaries and improvement of the photoluminescence of the porous silicon structure. ► An efficient antireflection coating (ARC) which enhances the solar cell performances. ► The effective minority carrier lifetime have been improved noticeably after annealing deposited films.