A simple and low-cost chemical etching method for controllable fabrication of large-scale kinked silicon nanowires

Abstract In this paper, large-area and uniform kinked silicon nanowires (SiNWs) in Si(1 1 1) have been fabricated by an alternating metal-catalyzed chemical etching (AMCCE) method. The etching direction alternating between [1 1 1] and [1 0 0] is highly controllable in this system, and the morphology of kinked SiNWs can be customized easily through controlling the alternating frequency. Good anti-reflection properties were proved by UV–vis spectrophotometer, the average reflectance at 200–1100 nm is less than 10%, and moreover, the reflectance can be as low as 6% in the visible region (380–780 nm), which shows a promising potential application as an anti-reflection structure in the photovoltaic field.