A novel method of fabricating porous silicon material: ultrasonically enhanced anodic electrochemical etching

Ultrasonically enhanced anodic electrochemical etching is developed to fabricate luminescent porous silicon (PS) material. The samples prepared by the new etching method exhibit superior characteristics to those prepared by conventional direct current etching. By applying ultrasonically enhanced etching, PS microcavities with much higher quality factors can be fabricated. The improved quality induced by ultrasonic etching can be ascribed to increased rates of escape of hydrogen bubbles and other etched chemical species from the porous silicon pillars' surface. This process will cause the reaction between the etchant and the silicon wafer to proceed more rapidly along the vertical direction in the silicon pores than laterally.