Solar Energy 256 (2023) 88–95

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Solar Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/solener

Comparison of random upright pyramids and inverted pyramid photonic

crystals in thin crystalline silicon solar cells: An optical and
morphological study
Sara M. Almenabawy a, Rajiv Prinja a, Nazir P. Kherani a, b, *
a
The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto, 10 King’s College Road, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G4, Canada
b
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Toronto, 184 College Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3E4, Canada

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The potential of enabling a wide range of applications with lightweight, flexible, thin silicon photovoltaic (PV)
Photonic crystals devices has led to research interest in various light-trapping technologies for thin silicon absorbers. Herein, using
Random pyramids both experiments and photonic modelling, we present a detailed comparison between random pyramid texturing
Light-trapping
and inverted pyramid photonic crystal patterning in thin silicon vis-à-vis light trapping. In particular, we
Ultra-thin silicon
Wave interference
investigate the potential of uniform single-dimension periodic structures in contrast to conventional multi-
Flexible silicon dimensional random structures for high broadband absorption efficiency in ultra-thin silicon. We find that
inverted pyramid photonic crystals cause a large increase in optical path length especially for long wavelength
photons due to strong wave interference producing exceptionally high absorption and so does random pyramids
though with slightly lower absorption than that of photonic crystals. On the other hand, the random pyramids,
fabricated via a one-step etching process with feature sizes ranging from sub-micron to 4 µm, have higher ab­
sorption at short wavelengths due to their multi-dimensional size distribution. Overall, we find that random
textured pyramids appropriately fabricated can yield a comparable ideal photocurrent density to that by pho­
tonic crystals for 10 µm thick silicon.

1. Introduction
With the cost of crystalline silicon photovoltaics steadily decreasing,
further cost reduction becomes more challenging and yet deemed crit­
ical for transitioning to a sustainable energy sector (Saive, 2021).
Reducing the amount of silicon material used in solar cells, which today
takes up most of the solar module cost, is a promising route in reducing
the overall cost of silicon PV (Liu et al., 2020). The main limiting factor
is the weak absorption of ultra-thin silicon given its indirect energy
bandgap, which can be improved by light trapping. It is commonly
presumed that for ultra-thin silicon, nanoscale structures are more
suitable than micro-scale random texturing for light trapping (Branham
et al., 2016; Wang et al., 2017; Zhong et al., 2016). The nanoscale
structures include nanopyramids (Wang et al., 2017; Zhong et al., 2016),
inverted nanopyramids (Branham et al., 2016; Tang et al., 2019),
nanowires (Hadibrata et al., 2017; Vismara et al., 2019), nanocones (He
et al., 2016; Jeong et al., 2013; Karakasoglu et al., 2015; Wang et al.,
2012), and black silicon (Li et al., 2020). However, nano-texturing is
accompanied with a significant increase in surface area which can cause
corresponding increase in surface recombination losses and hence limit
the Voc (Hadibrata et al., 2017; He et al., 2016; Karakasoglu et al., 2015;
Vismara et al., 2019). Furthermore, recent theoretical calculations pre­
dict that the use of micro-scale inverted pyramid photonic crystals can
beat the Lambertian limit through strong wave interference and achieve
> 40 mA/cm2 for 10 µm silicon thickness(Bhattacharya et al., 2019;
Hsieh et al., 2020) and Branham et al. experimentally demonstrated 34
mA/cm2 short circuit current in 10 µm thick silicon solar cell by
employing inverted pyramids with 700 nm pitch (Branham et al., 2015).
Alternatively, random pyramidal texturing through alkaline etching
has proven to be an effective light trapping scheme for thick c-Si solar
cells, a mainstay of the photovoltaic industry, providing the highest
efficiency solar cells (Yoshikawa et al., 2017). The random distribution

Abbreviations: IP-PhC, Inverted Pyramids Photonic Crystal; RP, Random Pyramid.

* Corresponding author at: The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto, 10 King’s College Road, Toronto,
Ontario M5S 3G4, Canada.
E-mail address: nazir.kherani@utoronto.ca (N.P. Kherani).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2023.03.045
Received 11 January 2023; Received in revised form 14 March 2023; Accepted 22 March 2023
Available online 7 April 2023
0038-092X/© 2023 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of International Solar Energy Society.
S.M. Almenabawy et al. Solar Energy 256 (2023) 88–95

of pyramid dimensions excites multiple resonance modes (Zhong et al., etching solution can further reduce the average size of random pyramids
2016) which on the whole gives rise to broadband high absorption. to less than 5 µm; this approach has led to photocurrent densities of ~
However, for ultra-thin silicon of 10 µm thickness or less the random 38 mA/cm2 for ~ 45 µm thick silicon (Balaji et al., 2020; Herasimenka
pyramid size of 5–10 µm is not practical. Extra additives to the alkaline et al., 2013; Petermann et al., 2012; Sai et al., 2019). Moreover, with

Fig. 1. (a) 3D schematic illustrations of the random pyramidal (RP) textured and the inverted pyramid photonic crystals (IP-PhC) patterned silicon. (b) Top view and
(c) side view SEM images of the experimentally obtained RP and IP-PhC patterns. (d) Distribution of the pyramid base widths for the RP samples and the Gaussian fit.
(e) Large-scale and small-scale AFM images of the RP samples. (f) A random pyramid textured sample after thinning exhibiting its dark color and flexibility. (g) Cross
section SEM images of the thin patterned silicon samples used to confirm the average thickness of the samples.

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S.M. Almenabawy et al.
further tuning of additives, random pyramids with an average base
width of 1 to 2 µm has been realized leading to photocurrent densities of
~ 34 mA/cm2 for 16–18 µm thick silicon absorber (Tan et al., 2017;
Wang et al., 2014). Further, using Ag nanoparticles as an etching mask,
random texturing at the nanoscale has been achieved leading to an ideal
photocurrent density of 39.8 mA/cm2 for 30 µm silicon (Zhong et al.,
2016).
Hence, the literature offers a wide variety of light trapping structures
for ultra-thin silicon solar cells, ranging from carefully engineered
photonic crystals to randomly produced upright pyramids. However, a
detailed comparison of these structures from an optical, morphological
and fabrication perspective is required to guide an informed selection of
the best structure for manufacturing of ultra-thin silicon solar cells.
Additionally, it is essential to investigate the appropriate range of di­
mensions of the randomly fabricated pyramids. The use of nano-scale
pyramids is crucial to minimizing the amount of etched material from
the already-thin silicon absorber. However, larger pyramids are neces­
sary to trap near-infrared photons. This work accordingly examines the
design of random pyramids that would be suitable for ultra-thin silicon
solar cells, while minimizing the number of fabrication steps and
avoiding the use of complex additives/processes.
Herein, we utilize a conventional one-step alkaline etching method
with which we obtain random pyramids with a wide range of di­
mensions, from sub-micron to several microns, and demonstrate that
this structure exhibits excellent light trapping in ultra-thin silicon down
to 10 µm. Further, we compare the optical performance of random
pyramids (RPs) to the inverted pyramids photonic crystals (IP-PhCs) on
silicon substrates ranging from 10 to 400 µm silicon thickness. Both
structures include micro-scale surface texture which offers minimal in­
crease in surface area and surface defect density, in addition to effi­
ciently capturing near-infra-red photons without requiring additional
back texturing. Optical modelling analysis in conjunction with the
experimental results show that for 10 µm thick silicon RPs with a wide-
size-range provide better broadband anti-reflective properties than the
IP-PhCs, albeit the IP-PhCs outperform the random pyramids at long
wavelengths due to the strong wave-interference.
2. Methods
The 3D schematics of the random pyramid and photonic crystal
patterns on silicon are shown in Fig. 1 (a). The wafers are pre-cleaned to
remove organics and native oxide from the silicon surface prior to
fabrication of the surface texture. Random pyramids are fabricated using
a solution of potassium hydroxide (KOH) and isopropyl alcohol (IPA) at
75 ◦ C. KOH is used for its well-known anisotropic silicon etching capa­
bility where the 〈1 0 0〉 planes are etched more rapidly, exposing the
〈1 1 1〉 planes at an angle of 54.7◦ , thus forming the pyramidal structure.
IPA is added to produce smoother surfaces and increase the KOH etching
rate. Inverted pyramid photonic crystals are fabricated using photoli­
thography where the desired pitch is attained via a thermal oxide etch
mask. Photolithography is used for pattern transfer due to its simplicity
and low cost, compared to other methods such as e-beam lithography,
and yet it makes it possible to achieve mesas with less than 100 nm
width. Upon transferring the pattern on the thermal oxide mask, peri­
odic inverted pyramids are formed using a dilute KOH alkaline solution
at 65 ◦ C; the remaining thermal oxide is then removed in a buffered
oxide etch (BOE) solution. Complete fabrication details of IP-PhCs are
provided elsewhere (Almenabawy et al., 2022). Wafers are thinned to
the desired thickness using KOH at 95 ◦ C while the patterned side is
protected using Protek B3TM.
Silicon dioxide anti-reflection coating is sputtered using RF magne­
tron sputtering of a SiO2 ceramic target. The back reflector is also sputter
deposited where the layer stack comprises of 200 nm of Ag and 100 nm
of SiO2 spacer layer that serves to reduce parasitic absorption in the Ag
layer.
For morphological characterization, Quanta FEG 250 scanning
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Solar Energy 256 (2023) 88–95
electron microscope is used for electron microscopy imaging, and a
Bruker AFM is used for surface roughness imaging. The integrated
sphere unit in Perkin Elmer Lambda 1050 spectrophotometer is used for
reflection and transmission measurements at all off-normal angles pre­
sented herein. The absorptance is determined using the relationship A =
100 – R – T. The optical modeling is performed using LumericalTM FDTD
(finite difference time domain) software.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Morphological analysis
The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images for both the RPs and
IP-PhCs, shown in Fig. 1 (b), demonstrate the uniformity and defect-free
fabrication over a large area. The random pyramids are densely
distributed across the whole wafer with no flat regions. Fig. 1 (c) shows
the cross-section SEM images for both patterns. For IP-PhCs, the precise
control of the etching process resulted in inverted pyramids with
nanoscale (less than 50 nm) yet well-defined mesas using conventional
photolithography (Almenabawy et al., 2022). All the IP-PhCs fabricated
in this work have a periodicity of 2 µm. This is close to the theoretically
optimized value for 10 µm thick silicon (Bhattacharya and John, 2019).
For the RPs, the etching process is designed to obtain a wide span of
pyramid sizes ranging from nano-pyramids (400 nm) to micro-pyramids
(4 µm). The distribution of pyramid base widths, shown in Fig. 1 (d),
illustrates a large variation in pyramid size with a base width mean of
1.77 µm and large standard deviation of ~ 1 µm, as determined by the
fitted Gaussian distribution. The atomic force microscopy (AFM) im­
ages, shown in Fig. 1 (e), reveal a random distribution of the silicon
pyramids as well as show overlapping of pyramids due to their dense
population. Fig. 1 (f) shows a random pyramid sample etched down to
20 µm, displaying its dark color and flexibility. The optical properties of
the patterned silicon are studied for wafer thicknesses ranging from 400
µm down to 10 µm. The average thickness is determined with a digital
thickness gauge applied at several points on each sample. These
measured thicknesses are corroborated via SEM imaging. SEM images of
two of the 10 µm samples are shown in Fig. 1 (g), confirming an average
thickness of 10 µm ± 1 µm.
3.2. Experimental analysis
Despite the removal of > 97 % of the silicon material in the case of
the thinnest silicon, RPs show marked enhancement in light trapping
over planar silicon. Notwithstanding the drastic loss in absorption with
reduction in planar silicon thickness, as shown in Fig. 2 (a), the ab­
sorption for RP patterned silicon does not show any appreciable decline
up 850 nm in wavelength (Fig. 2 (b)). Moreover, the decrease in NIR
light absorption is minimal with continual decrease in silicon thickness.
Similarly, IP-PhCs experience almost no loss in absorption at short
wavelengths albeit some loss at long wavelengths is observed. To
quantitatively compare the overall absorption of both structures, the
photocurrent density is calculated using
∫ λ=1100nm
eλ
Jph = AM 1.5 (λ)A(λ)dλ (1)
λ=300nm hc
where AM1.5 (λ) is the intensity of the AM1.5 solar spectrum, e is the
electronic charge, h is Planck’s constant, c is the speed of light and A(λ) is
the spectral absorption. For all the calculated Jph , it is assumed that the
internal quantum efficiency is 100 %. Photocurrent densities are
measured here for the range of wavelengths of silicon absorption that
will most likely result in collectible photocarrier. Photons absorbed
below 300 nm will likely lose their energy to thermalization whereas
photons absorbed beyond 1100 nm are likely due to free carrier ab­
sorption in the slightly doped silicon wafer and/or parasitic absorption
from the additional device layers. In order to avoid an over-estimation of
S.M. Almenabawy et al. Solar Energy 256 (2023) 88–95

Fig. 2. Absorption in silicon at various thicknesses: (a) in flat/planar silicon, (b) in textured silicon with random pyramids (RPs) with widths from 400 nm to 4 µm,
and (c) in silicon with inverted pyramids photonic crystals (IP-PhCs) with pitch a = 2 µm. (d) Ideal photocurrent density in silicon with three surface profiles (planar,
RPs, IP-PhCs) as a function of silicon thickness ranging from 10 to 145 µm. (e) Absorption in 10 µm thick silicon with RPs and IP-PhCs; both structures include SiO2
ARC and Ag back reflector (BR). The Lambertian absorption limit for 10 µm silicon is included for comparison. (f) Comparison of the ideal photocurrent density in 10
μm silicon (which includes ARC and BR layers) with different surface profiles. Also included is the Lambertian limit.

the ideal Jph of the proposed structures, only the wavelength range from over RPs at long wavelengths leads to a slightly better ideal photocur­
300 nm to 1100 nm is taken into consideration. The Jph for RPs, IP-PhCs, rent density for IP-PhCs, specifically, 38 mA/cm2 compared to 37.6 mA/
and planar silicon are shown in Fig. 2 (d). Both patterned surfaces show cm2 for RPs, as shown in Fig. 2 (f). While the photonic crystals do
a huge improvement compared to un-patterned planar silicon; specif­ provide better light trapping capabilities evident from the higher ab­
ically, the IP-PhCs show slightly greater absorption than that of the sorption at long wavelengths, the better anti-reflection properties of the
random pyramids for 40 µm and 20 µm thick silicon. The ideal Jph for random pyramids at shorter wavelengths offsets this difference and re­
both structures reach 33.3 mA/cm2 for 10 µm thick devices. It is seen sults in comparable photocurrent densities. Both structures show
that when silicon is significantly thinned down to 10 µm, the small ab­ outstanding enhancement compared to the un-patterned silicon – almost
sorption coefficient of silicon in the NIR (owing to its indirect optical doubling the photocurrent density of 19 mA/cm2 for 10 µm planar
bandgap) leads to loss of some light via transmission. To further enhance silicon.
the light trapping properties of these structures and eliminate the
transmission loss, the application of a back reflector is essential (Bhat­
3.3. Simulation analysis
tacharya et al., 2019). An anti-reflection coating will also aid the ab­
sorption at short wavelengths which is still far from the ideal 100 %
To better understand the underlying mechanisms responsible for the
nominally assumed in the Lambertian limit.
observed absorption enhancement in both structures vis-à-vis planar
On 10 µm thick silicon we now deposit the SiO2 anti-reflection
silicon, a series of Finite difference time domain (FDTD) simulations are
coating on the front-surface and Ag back reflector on the back-surface.
carried out. Details of the simulations are outlined in section 1 of the
The absorption spectra of the full device for both textures on 10 μm
supporting information. We carry out the FDTD modelling by using the
silicon is shown in Fig. 2 (e); for comparison the Lambertian absorption
exact random pyramid structure, as determined by the AFM measure­
profile is also included. The parasitic absorption from Ag is modelled
ments which is shown in Fig. 3 (a). The simulated spatial absorption
and presented in Figure S2, showing that it is negligible compared to the
profile (in W/m3) of the actual AFM determined surface texture is shown
total absorption in silicon; this outcome is due to the presence of the
in Fig. 3 (b) at λ = 550 nm and λ = 950 nm, with and without the ARC –
dielectric SiO2 spacer layer, in agreement with previous reports (Zhong
BR layers. At λ = 550 nm, the absorption mostly takes place within the
et al., 2016; Hadibrata et al., 2018). For wavelengths ranging from λ =
pyramids, and it is observed that the ARC layer enhances the light
300 nm to 650 nm, the absorption of RPs – which includes the ARC and
coupling into the pyramids due to the improved optical impedance
BR layers, surpasses the absorption of IP-PhCs. This is largely due to the
matching with air. Further, upon adding the back reflector more intense
presence of sub-micron sized pyramids which enhance coupling of the
light absorption patterns are observed at λ = 950 nm. We note that
short wavelength photons to the silicon absorber, and the elimination of
because the simulated absorption profiling is 2D which does not align
all planar regions, which is in contrast to the IP-PhCs where the mesas
with the tips of all the pyramids, the absorption maps do not accurately
(flat area between the pyramids) give rise to higher reflection. Beyond λ
exhibit the light coupling capability of the random pyramid structure.
= 800 nm, the absorption of the IP-PhC sample surpasses that of the
To overcome this, we generate a repeating motif of random pyramids
random pyramid sample. This indicates that the IP-PhCs, combined with
having the identical mean and standard deviation as the experimental
a back reflector, demonstrate better light trapping capabilities at longer
obtained pyramids, and the same y-axis location so that all their tips are
wavelengths than the RPs, and in fact even surpasses the Lambertian
aligned, as illustrated in the inset in Fig. 3 (c), thereby providing a more
limit from 1050 nm to 1100 nm – which agrees with previous theoretical
proper comparison with the periodic IP-PhCs. The simulated absorption
predictions (Bhattacharya et al., 2019). The improvement of IP-PhCs
for both RP and IP-PhC structures is shown in Fig. 3 (c). The resonant

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S.M. Almenabawy et al. Solar Energy 256 (2023) 88–95

Fig. 3. (a) The structure of the RPs, as determined by AFM measurements, used in the FDTD simulations. (b) Spatial absorption profile of the RPs with and without
ARC and BR layers at λ = 550 and 950 nm. (c) Spectral absorption profiles as calculated using 2D simulation of the IP-PhCs with pitch a = 2 µm and of the RPs having
a mean base width of 1.77 µm with standard deviation of 0.92 µm (generated using a random generator script); absorption profiles are for structures with and without
the ARC and BR layers. (d) Poynting vectors and (e) spatial absorption profiles of IP-PhCs and RPs at select wavelengths (λ = 465 nm, 898 nm, 957 nm, 978 nm and
1039 nm). The absorption profile represents the absorbed power per unit volume and has the units of (W/m3).

peaks apparent here are due to the usage of a coherent light source in the at longer wavelengths is ascribed to the interaction among the various
modelling. Without the ARC and BR layers, the RPs show higher ab­ diffraction modes of a periodic gratings structure. With the ARC and BR
sorption at short wavelengths whereas the IP-PhCs absorption peaks layers, a broadband increase in absorption is obtained for both struc­
exhibit higher absorption beyond λ = 700 nm. The latter enhancement tures. The RPs still show higher absorption at short wavelengths, while

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S.M. Almenabawy et al. Solar Energy 256 (2023) 88–95

the IP-PhCs show strong absorption peaks for wavelengths beyond 970
nm – consistent with the experimental results.
This behavior is better understood by exploring the Poynting vectors
[Fig. 3 (d)] and absorption profiles [Fig. 3 (e)] at selected wavelengths –
the selected wavelengths are indicated by the red circles in Fig. 3 (c). At
λ = 465 nm, the absorption profile of the RPs shows higher absorption
intensity at the surface – a result of better light coupling to silicon. The
Poynting vector also shows that light is predominantly scattered from
the areas where there are sub-micron pyramids, confirming the impor­
tance of small pyramids in capturing short wavelength photons. At λ =
898 nm, both structures exhibit strong absorption and wave interfer­
ence. For RPs, wave interference is aperiodic evident from the random
pattern of the absorption profile and Poynting vectors (which is directly
proportional to the field intensity), while in the periodic IP-PhC struc­
ture the absorption profile clearly reflects a periodic pattern consistent
with uniform array of the pyramids. The last strong peak for RPs appears
at λ = 957 nm, where the absorption profile also exhibits strong wave
interference. At this same wavelength, the absorption profile of the IP-
PhCs is relatively weak as it aligns with a trough in the absorption
spectrum. Beyond λ = 970 nm, the absorption intensity starts to
decrease for RPs and fades away completely at λ = 1039 nm whereas the
IP-PhCs still show strong interference patterns. At λ = 1039 nm, the
Poynting vectors in IP-PhCs take a more horizontal direction as opposed
to the weaker randomly pointed vectors for RPs. In general, for
randomly textured surfaces, the increase in optical path length is due to
the randomization of light propagation and the presence of some
interference. For long-wavelength photons, this path length enhance­
ment however is on average not sufficient for complete absorption even
with the presence of a back reflector given the dominant randomization
in direction of propagation and thus the higher escape probability via
the front surface. In contrast, with photonic crystals the near parallel to
interface refraction of these photons significantly increases their path
length and leads to strong absorption of long wavelength photons.
To better understand the potential of using random pyramids with a
large distribution of pyramid base widths, we model RPs with different
widths. We use a RP base width generator where the minimum pyramid
base width is fixed at 200 nm while the maximum ranges from 400 nm to
4 µm; the silicon absorber thicknesses is varied from 4 to 15 µm. Several
histograms showing the distribution of the generated random pyramids
widths are shown in Figure S4 in the supporting information. A heat map
showing the ideal Jph as determined by these simulations is shown in
Fig. 4 (a); the points for the maximum Jph at each thickness are circled.
For all thicknesses, the Jph increases with increasing the range of pyra­
mid base-widths, spanning from 400 nm to > 1 µm; it is interesting to
observe this trend even though this implies higher Jph with less silicon
absorber material. The absorption profiles for 5 µm thick silicon with
maximum pyramid base width of 400 nm, 2.4 µm, and 4 µm at different Fig. 4. (a) Simulated ideal Jph as a function of the maximum pyramid base
width for silicon absorber thicknesses of 4 μm to 15 μm; the minimum pyramid
wavelengths are shown in Fig. 4 (b). The sub-micron pyramids show
base width is fixed at 200 nm. (b) The spatial absorption profiles for RPs with
strong absorption at λ = 470 nm owing to their ability to couple sub-
different maximum pyramid base widths (0.4, 2.4, and 4 µm) at different
micron wavelength photons to silicon, however, this structure does wavelengths of light. The absorption profile represents the absorbed power per
not provide adequate light trapping for higher wavelength photons, as is unit volume and has the units of (W/m3).
evident in the λ = 750 nm and λ = 950 nm absorption profiles. On the
other hand, stronger light trapping performance for long wavelength experimentally measured and computationally simulated reflection
photons is observed when pyramid base width range is increased to 2.4 profiles of both structures at angles of incidence of 8, 15, and 45◦ . The
µm and 4 µm. However, when the maximum pyramid base width is 4 µm, photonic crystals sample used here have a pitch of 2 µm and the random
the loss of absorber material competes with the light trapping pyramids have a mean base width of 1.77 µm with standard deviation of
enhancement leading to an overall reduction in Jph. This effect is miti­ 0.92 µm. The raw reflection data (R(λ) in %) is shown in Figure S4 in the
gated as the silicon thickness increases; specifically, this reduction in Jph supporting information whereas the normalized weighted average
is not observed for 15 µm thick silicon. Clearly, selection of the range of
reflectance RNormalized (unitless) is shown in Fig. 5. RNormalized is calculated
pyramid base widths needs to be carefully balanced for adequate light
as follows:
trapping against excessive material loss to etching.
∫
AM1.5 (λ) R(λ) d(λ)
RNormalized = ∫ (unitless) (2)
3.4. Dependence on the angle of incidence AM1.5 (λ) RNormalizedangle=0◦

We next examine the optical performance for light impinging at As demonstrated by the results in Fig. 5, both simulation and
increasing angle of incidence with respect to the normal. We determine experimental values follow the same trend for the normalized

93
S.M. Almenabawy et al.
Fig. 5. The normalized weighted average reflectance for experimentally measured and simulated data as a function of the angle of incidence for RPs and IP-PhCs.
reflectance RNormalized . For both structures, the reflection at long wave­
lengths is essentially the same for all angles. For IP-PhCs, the reflection is
largely the same for short wavelength photons at 0◦ , 8◦ , and 30◦ off-
normal incidence, but it increases by 1.4 × (1.68 × in simulation) at
45◦ off-normal incidence. For RPs, normalized reflectance is observed to
increase slightly by 1.1 × (1.2 × in simulation) at 45◦ off-normal inci­
dence, indicating that random structures are essentially independent of
the incident angle of light when compared to the periodic photonic
crystal pattern.
The presentation thus far has focused on the optical properties of
random pyramids and periodic structures; we now briefly consider the
cost, complexity of the fabrication process, and the scalability of the two
structures. Random pyramids can be obtained using a one-step etching
process which can be completed in a few minutes. In contrast, photonic
crystals require a series of fabrication steps, including a lithography step
prior to etching of the periodic inverted pyramids. The photolithography
while relatively facile and enabling the attainment of periodic structures
with nano-mesas, the process nevertheless involves several fabrication
steps that include photoresist coating of the wafer, pre-baking the
photoresist, UV light exposure, and photoresist developing. Clearly, pros
and cons of optical enhancement and fabrication process complexity
need to be weighed carefully. Finally, despite the ease and convenience
of the etching technology, it is important to consider its limitations
including (1) the unavoidable loss of silicon material, (2) the contami­
nation of the silicon due to the use of potassium hydroxide which can be
overcome by careful decontamination processes, (3) the dependence of
the etch rate on the crystal orientation of the silicon wafer, and (4)
etching uniformity across large substrates.
4. Conclusion
We have fabricated random pyramids (RPs) and inverted pyramid
photonic crystals (IP-PhCs) on ultra-thin silicon foils with thickness as
low as 10 µm, comparing the light-trapping properties of aperiodic and
periodic structures. The optical absorption of these structures is exam­
ined with and without the inclusion of anti-reflection and back-reflector
layers. The structures are further investigated via FDTD optical model­
ling where we explore various geometrical dependencies including the
influence of the range of random pyramid base widths on optical ab­
sorption. Our findings indicate that the RPs exhibit better anti-reflective
properties at short wavelengths due to the presence of nano-sized pyr­
amids, whereas IP-PhCs show better light trapping at long wavelengths
due to the strong wave interference and longer optical path length. For
best optical performance from random pyramids, both nano-scale and
micro-scale pyramids need to be included to capture both short and long
wavelength photons. Additionally, loss of optical absorption due to
increasing optical reflection with increasing angle of incidence is
observed to be less significant for random pyramids compared to pho­
tonic crystals studied here. Overall, both light trapping structures can
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Solar Energy 256 (2023) 88–95
exhibit comparable optical absorption for the given silicon absorber
thicknesses when optimally designed. Furthermore, other factors war­
rant scrutiny vis-à-vis overall solar cell processing; these include thin
silicon handling, texturing complexities, junction area, interfacial
recombination, and parasitic absorption.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Ontario Research Fund – Research
Excellence program, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research
Council of Canada, CMC Microsystems, and the University of Toronto.
Appendix A. Supplementary material
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.solener.2023.03.045.
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