Structural Characteristics of Porous Silicon

Abstract


Silicon wafers (p-type) were etched under continuous flow of HF vapors in a reaction chamber at standard temperature and pressure. Etched surface of the silicon wafer was found emitting red luminescence when exposed to ultra violet (UV) light. XRD and Atomic Force Microscopy of the etched samples were carried out to study the surface of the etched silicon. It is noticed that etching has removed the stress induced atomic layers of silicon at grain boundaries and layer of porous silicon has been formed at the surface of silicon wafer which has higher inter planer distance than the silicon itself. The size of dots observed on the surface of etched silicon is of the order of few nm. The red emission from the surface of etched silicon appears to be due to the energy states induced by quantum confinement.


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Hussain, Q. ,  , A. , Naz, N. , Akbar, A. and Ali, A. (2014) Structural Characteristics of Porous Silicon. Journal of Surface Engineered Materials and Advanced Technology, 4, 105-110. doi: 10.4236/jsemat.2014.42014.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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