Composite nanostructures induced by water-confined femtosecond laser pulses irradiation on GaAs/Ge solar cell surface for anti-reflection

Composite nanostructures (CNs) composed of random nano-pores and nano-protrusions were fabricated on the surface of the GaAs/Ge solar cell by water-confined femtosecond laser processing. The result of the FESEM and AFM revealed that the size of the CNs is about 300-500 nm. In order to research the evolution of the CNs, a group of laser irradiation under different number of pulses from 50 to 400 was performed on the cell surface. In conclusion, the formation mechanism is concerned to the generation of microbubbles and the interaction between the laser-induced plasma and the nano-roughness. The CNs effectively promote the antireflection performance and suppress the surface reflectivity to 8.9% over the entire wavelength range (300-1200 nm).