Enhancement of physical properties of stain-etched porous silicon by integration of WO3 nanoparticles

M. Alaya (1) , Rabia Benabderrahmane Zaghouani , S. Khamlich (2) , J.-L. Lazzari (3) , W. Dimassi (1)

1 Laboratoire de Photovoltaïque, Centre de Recherches et des Technologies de l'Energie, Technopôle de Borj-Cédria, BP, 95 Hammam-Lif, Tunis, Tunisia
2 iThemba LABS [National Research Foundation]
3 CINaM - Centre Interdisciplinaire de Nanoscience de Marseille

In this work, we report on the passivation of porous silicon (PS) by tungsten trioxide (WO 3) nanostructured thin films deposited via dip-coating of PS in tungsten hexachloride and water/ethanol solution. Structural analysis by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy showed a partial disappearance of SiH x and Si-O-Si peaks after WO 3 thin film deposition on the PS due to the replacement of H atoms by WO 3. Additionally, PS/WO 3 sample revealed weakly intense peaks which can be ascribed to O-W-O and W=O bridging bonds. Morphological analysis by atomic force spectroscopy showed the coverage of the PS surface by a nanostructured thin film of dense WO 3 nanoparticles with a size ranging from 40 to 60 nm. The photoluminescence signal intensity of PS/WO 3 samples presents a continuous increase as a function of the immersion time in the precursor solution. This is attributed to a better decoration of the PS surface by WO 3 nanoplatelets and a decrease of surface recombination velocity (200 x 10 2 cm/s for untreated silicon, 137 x 10 2 cm/s for PS and 99 x 10 2 cm/s for PS/WO 3 samples). Hence, a ~ 50 % improvement in the effective lifetime of minority carriers is obtained. Moreover, the deposited WO 3 contributed not only to the passivation of PS, but acted as an antireflection layer which enhanced the optical properties of PS by reducing the reflection of light. These obtained results confirmed the benefits of using WO 3 thin film as passivation/antireflection coating for possible solar cell application.

Mots clés: Porous silicon; Passivation; Tungsten oxide; Photoluminescence; Surface recombination velocity; Minority carrier lifetime

Domaines: Sciences de l'ingénieur [physics]

M. Alaya, Rabia Benabderrahmane Zaghouani, S. Khamlich, J.-L. Lazzari, W. Dimassi. Enhancement of physical properties of stain-etched porous silicon by integration of WO3 nanoparticles. Thin Solid Films, 2018, 645, pp.51-56. ⟨10.1016/j.tsf.2017.10.041⟩. ⟨hal-03156158⟩