ABSTRACT
Low-cost, wideband, and wide-angle antireflective layers are of prime importance to photovoltaic and other optoelectronic applications. We report a novel fabrication methodology of random textured silicon nanocones (SiNCs) array through metal-assisted chemical etching combined with oxidation. The optical properties of the fabricated structure are studied theoretically and experimentally. The random textured SiNCs array showed very promising broadband antireflective properties through the entire visible wavelength range at different incident angles up to ±60°. In addition, the nanostructures inherently could become self-cleaning due to the high contact angle. This random cheap textured SiNCs array increases the absorption efficiency of photodetectors and reduces its cost.
ABSTRACT
Vertical silicon nanowire arrays were fabricated leading to an enhanced photoluminescence (PL) emission and second-order nonlinear optical response. PL from the nanowires was increased by a factor of 50 as compared to bulk silicon. The second order nonlinearity was demonstrated in second-harmonic generation and rotational anisotropic measurements. Enhancement by at least a factor of 80 was achieved as compared to bulk silicon for the p-polarized input and s-polarized output. These enhancements in the silicon characteristics should enable highly desired applications using a silicon platform, such as nonlinear and active devices.
