Fabrication of ultra-small texture arrays on multicrystalline silicon surface for solar cell application

In this paper, ultra-small texture arrays have been synthesized via Ag and Ni catalyzed etching on the multicrystalline silicon wafers. The wafers textured by Ni catalyzed etching can obtain similar optical property to the ones textured by Ag catalyzed etching. Then the corresponding solar cells of the two groups were manufactured and investigated. The performance of the solar cells textured via Ni catalyzed etching is better, due to their lower recombination. In addition, as Ni is much cheaper than Ag, this Ni catalyzed etching technique is promising to industrial fabrication.

► Ultra-small texture arrays were formed via Ni catalyzed etching on mc-Si wafers. ► Ultra-small texture arrays exhibited considerable antireflection property. ► Ultra-small textured mc-Si solar cells were manufactured correspondingly.