Morphology based statistical analysis of nanosecond pulsed laser texturing of the multicrystalline silicon

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the surface morphology of the textured multicrystalline silicon with nanosecond (ns) Nd: YVO4 laser (wavelength of 1064 nm, repetition rate of 10 KHz, and pulse duration of 14 ns). Various surface topographies have been achieved with different laser as well as irradiation parameters. The textured area average roughness and depth have been statistically analyzed through ANOVA test, which could evaluate the significance and effectiveness of the adopted design of experiment. This research work is based on three control factors: Laser fluence, laser pulse overlap percentage, and number of irradiations. The statistical assessments were conducted based on roughness and depth values measured by optical interferometry. The effect of roughness and depth on solar weighted reflectance (SWR) was analyzed and significant reduction in SWR with increase in Ra was observed. In addition, time and energy consumption, which are highly significant in the industrial applications, have been investigated.