TITLE:
Structural Characteristics of Porous Silicon
AUTHORS:
Qadeer Hussain, Arifullah , Nazir A. Naz, Ammar Akbar, Akbar Ali
KEYWORDS:
PS, XRD, Electron Confinement
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Surface Engineered Materials and Advanced Technology,
Vol.4 No.2,
April
29,
2014
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.