Lithography-free sub-100 nm nanocone array antireflection layer for low-cost silicon solar cell.

A high-density and -uniformity sub-100 nm surface-oxidized silicon nanocone forest structure is created and integrated onto the existing texturization microstructures on a photovoltaic device surface by a one-step high-throughput plasma-enhanced texturization method. We suppressed the broadband optical reflection on chemically textured grade-B silicon solar cells for up to 70.25% through this nanomanufacturing method. The performance of the solar cell is improved with the short-circuit current increased by 7.1%, fill factor increased by 7.0%, and conversion efficiency increased by 14.66%. Our method demonstrates the potential to improve the photovoltaic device performance with low-cost and high-throughput nanomanufacturing technology.