From black silicon to photovoltaic cells, using short pulse lasers

Laser created Black Silicon has been developed since 1998 at Harvard University. The unique optical and semiconducting properties of the black silicon first lead to interesting applications for sensors (photodetectors, thermal imaging cameras…). Other applications like Photovoltaic solar cells have been rapidly identified, but it took more than ten years of research and development before demonstrating a real improvement of the photovoltaic efficiency on an industrial multi-crystalline solar cell. This paper is a brief review of the use of black silicon for photovoltaic cells.