Fabrication and characterization of porous silicon layers for applications in optoelectronics

In the present paper, several samples of porous silicon monolayers and multilayers were prepared at different anodization conditions with fixed HF concentration. The room temperature photoluminescence wavelength observed to be increased with increased etching time and current density respectively. By Raman measurement it has been observed that as the size of silicon crystallites decreased with increased etching time, the silicon optical phonon line shifted somewhat to lower frequency from 520.5 cm⁻¹ and became broader asymmetrically. The surface roughness and pyramid like hillocks surface was confirmed by AFM measurement. In SEM images, the porous silicon layers were clearly observed by white and black strips. It was also observed that the reflectivity increased as the number of porous silicon layers was increased.