Barron, Andrew R2016-01-042016-01-042015-052015-04-23May 2015Lu, Yen-Tien. "Synthesis of black silicon anti-reflection layers for silicon solar cells." (2015) Diss., Rice University. <a href="https://hdl.handle.net/1911/87684">https://hdl.handle.net/1911/87684</a>.https://hdl.handle.net/1911/87684Solar energy is one of the most important renewable energy resources in the world. Among all kinds of solar cells, the fabrication technology of silicon solar cells is relatively mature which makes them more popular in the solar cell market. However, in order to compete with the traditional energy sources, decreasing cost of per watt output seems necessary. Hence, increasing the energy conversion efficiency with an economical approach is an unavoidable issue. One solution is applying anti-reflection layers onto the silicon solar cells to maximize energy conversion efficiency. Recently, black silicon anti-reflection layers have attracted attention because their anti-reflection ability is less confined by the incident light angle and wavelength. In this thesis, two methods, the metal-assisted chemical etching and the contact-assisted chemical etching method, which have potential to economically fabricate large-scale black silicon on silicon solar cells are systematically studied. The complete etching mechanisms of these two methods are also proposed to clearly describe the fabrication process of black silicon.application/pdfengCopyright is held by the author, unless otherwise indicated. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the work beyond the bounds of fair use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder.black siliconsolar cellanti-reflection layermetaletchnanoparticleporous siliconThesis2016-01-04