Ag-assisted electrochemical etching of silicon for antireflection in large area crystalline thin film photovoltaics

We report here an electroless metal (Ag) - assisted chemical etching (MacEtch) process as light management surface-texturing technique for ultra-thin single crystalline Si thin film photovoltaics. Monolayer Ag nanostructures were formed on the top of the Si surface based on thin film evaporation and annealing process. Large area thin film black Si sample was obtained with simple wet etching process, with ~2% reflection over a wide spectra range (300 to 1050 nm). The work demonstrates the potential of MacEtch process for the fabrication of large area, flexible, high efficiency, and low cost thin film solar cells.