Front surface engineering of high efficiency Si solar cells and Ge TPV cells
The authors demonstrate the effectiveness of using wet chemical techniques for Si and Ge planar surfaces to form nanoporous layers, and grow stable passivating oxide layers on planar and porous surfaces, after the front grid metallization step. Results show that this passivated chemical oxide layer: (i) can serve as an effective window/first layer antireflective coating, (ii) is chemically, thermally and UV stable, (iii) can simplify the structure of Si, Ge and III-V based space solar cells, thereby reducing cost, and (iv) has the potential of improving the beginning of life and especially the end of life efficiency of Si andmore »