Surface wettability of silicon substrates enhanced by laser ablation

Laser–ablation techniques have been widely applied for removing material from a solid surface using a laser–beam irradiating apparatus. This paper presents a surface–texturing technique to create rough patterns on a silicon substrate using a pulsed Nd:YAG laser system. The different degrees of micro...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied physics. A, Materials science & processing Materials science & processing, 2010-11, Vol.101 (2), p.303-308
Main Authors: Tseng, Shih-Feng, Hsiao, Wen-Tse, Chen, Ming-Fei, Huang, Kuo-Cheng, Hsiao, Sheng-Yi, Lin, Yung-Sheng, Chou, Chang-Pin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Characterization and Evaluation of Materials
Condensed Matter Physics
Contact angle
Craters
Droplets
Lasers
Machines
Manufacturing
Nanotechnology
Optical and Electronic Materials
Physics
Physics and Astronomy
Processes
Pulse duration
Scanning electron microscopy
Silicon substrates
Surface chemistry
Surfaces and Interfaces
Thin Films
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Summary:Laser–ablation techniques have been widely applied for removing material from a solid surface using a laser–beam irradiating apparatus. This paper presents a surface–texturing technique to create rough patterns on a silicon substrate using a pulsed Nd:YAG laser system. The different degrees of microstructure and surface roughness were adjusted by the laser fluence and laser pulse duration. A scanning electron microscope (SEM) and a 3D confocal laser–scanning microscope are used to measure the surface micrograph and roughness of the patterns, respectively. The contact angle variations between droplets on the textured surface were measured using an FTA 188 video contact angle analyzer. The results indicate that increasing the values of laser fluence and laser pulse duration pushes more molten slag piled around these patterns to create micro-sized craters and leads to an increase in the crater height and surface roughness. A typical example of a droplet on a laser–textured surface shows that the droplet spreads very quickly and almost disappears within 0.5167 s, compared to a contact angle of 47.9° on an untextured surface. This processing technique can also be applied to fabricating Si solar panels to increase the absorption efficiency of light.
ISSN:0947-8396
1432-0630
DOI:10.1007/s00339-010-5821-y