Etching method and method for performing surface processing on solid material for solar cell

Abstract

Provided is an etching method including: (1) bringing a material containing at least one organic compound having an N—F bond into contact with the surface of a solid material; and (2) a step of heating the solid material; whereby etching can be performed safely and in a simple manner, at a higher etching rate, without the use of a high-environmental-load gas that causes global warming or highly reactive and toxic fluorine gas or hydrofluoric acid. The etching method may further include: (3) a step of exposing the solid material to light from the side of the material containing at least one organic compound having an N—F bond; and (4) a step of removing the material containing at least one organic compound having an N—F bond together with the residue remained between said material and the solid material. In particular, performing heating at a high temperature and applying light irradiation make it possible to form inverted pyramid-shaped recesses that are suitable for applying light-trapping and/or anti-reflection processing to the surface of the solid material for a solar cell.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.