High-performance porous silicon solar cell development. Final report, October 1, 1993--September 30, 1995

The goal of the program was to demonstrate use of porous silicon in new solar cell structures. Porous silicon technology has been developed at Spire for producing visible light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The major aspects that they have demonstrated are the following: porous silicon active layers have been made to show photovoltaic action; porous silicon surface layers can act as antireflection coatings to improve the performance of single-crystal silicon solar cells; and porous silicon surface layers can act as antireflection coatings on polycrystalline silicon solar cells. One problem with the use of porous silicon is to achieve good lateral conduction of electrons and holes through the material. This shows up in terms of poor blue response and photocurrents which increase with increasing reverse bias applied to the diode.