Fabrication of silicon nanostructured thin film and its transfer from bulk wafers onto alien substrates
Journal
Journal of the Electrochemical Society
Journal Volume
158
Journal Issue
2
Date Issued
2011
Author(s)
Abstract
Various Si nanostructures can be fabricated using a metal-assisted etching technique, which must be applied on bulk Si wafers, limiting its applications and wasting a significant amount of material. Here, we report a technique to form a Si nanostructured thin film created by metal-assisted chemical etching from bulk Si wafers and to transfer it onto alien substrates. To detach the Si nanostructured thin films completely from bulk Si wafers, a second-step metal-assisted chemical etching made the root of the Si nanostructures become fragile. The transferred Si nanostructures are well-aligned along the normal direction of the receiver substrate. The X-ray diffraction spectrum reveals that the transferred Si nanostructured thin films exhibit good crystal orientation and morphology. A strong light trapping effect between the nanostructures causes such films of thickness to exhibit nearly 99% absorption from . This exceeds the theoretically calculated limits of planar Si.
Type
journal article