Photoluminescence at the fundamental absorption edge of single-crystal silicon textured without masking

The extraction efficiencies of edge luminescence from single-crystal silicon have been compared for three structures: textured without masking, untextured, and textured with masking by the technology of high-efficiency solar cells. The highest efficiency was obtained for the structure textured without masking. For this structure, the efficiency of power conversion at a wavelength of $\sim$0.66 $\mu$m and power of 75 mW into edge PL power emerging from the semiconductor was $\eta\approx$ 0.8% under the nonradiative recombination conditions described by the exponential photoluminescence (PL) decay time constant of $\sim$0.11 ms. The directivity diagrams of the edge PL were measured for the three structures under study.