Mesoporous silicon photonic structures with thousands of periods

Abstract

In this work, we present the results on the fabrication and characterization of the structural and optical properties of thick mesoporous silicon-based 1D photonic crystals (PC) containing up to 2500 periods (400 μm thick) made by electrochemical etching in the hydrofluoric acid solution. The composition of multilayered structures with good spatial periodicity up to thousands of layers and with good reproducibility of porosity of alternate layers is demonstrated that is proven by SEM measurements. Comparative studies of the reflectivity spectra from the front and back sides of a thick free-standing PC also testify a good periodicity of the multilayer structure which manifests itself by the appearance of the photonic band gaps. We demonstrate that the main mechanism that restricts the fabrication of thick porous silicon-based photonic crystals is the local decreasing of the HF concentration in pores.