Role of etching parameters on the performance of porous silicon based photodetector devices

Abstract

This work demonstrates the high speed porous silicon (P–Si) based photodetector with varying the etching parameters. The P–Si samples were fabricated using electrochemical etching. The microstructural characterization was performed using SEM, contact angle, FTIR and Raman spectroscopy. Further, these nanostructured samples were tested as photodetectors in the visible wavelength spectrum. The optimized sample based photodetector shows a higher photo to dark current ratio (PDCR) of 1.27 × 103 and less dark current as compared to the other tested photodetectors. Moreover, it also offers a higher detectivity of 5.97✕1011 Jones and rise/fall time of 0.017/0.010 s. The developed nanostructures and photodetectors are shown to have excellent process scalability and repeatability. These results demonstrate the potential applications of P–Si photodetectors for optoelectronic devices.