Structural and Optical Properties of Porous Silicon Prepared by Electrochemical Etching

Abstract

The structural and optical features of Porous Silicon(PS) were investigated; the porous silicon was prepared by electrochemical etching of silicon wafers in HF solution. The morphologies and Photoluminescence(PL) features of the PS were investigated in terms of etching time, current density and aging conditions. The average pore diameter and pore depth were determined by current density and etching time, respectively. As-prepared PS exhibited the maximum PL peak at the wavelength of ∼ 450 nm. The degree of deviation from as-prepared PS during aging treatment seemed to depend on the microstructure as well as morphology of the PS. It is found that etching current density played an important role on the microstructural features of the PS.