Current density porous silicon

Figure 4. Formation condition for porous silicon solid line - peak current density, dotted line - current density at the maximum slope (see Figure.2).18...

Electropolishing is well established as a simple, in situ method to separate porous silicon layers from the silicon electrode. By switching the anodic current density from values below JPS to a value above JPS, the PS film is separated at its interface to the bulk electrode. The flatness of a PS surface separated by electropolishing is sufficient for optical applications, as shown in Fig. 10.10. 

There are essentially three different ways how to prepare nanometer sized silicon particles. The porous silicon is, as already mentioned, prepared by anodic etching of silicon wafers in an HF/ethanol/water solution [6, 7]. The microporous silicon has typically a high porosity of 60-70 vol.%, and it consists of few nm thin wires which preserve the original orientation of the wafer. The thickness of the wires varies within the PS layer and the material is very brittle. Free standing PS films can be prepared by application of a high current density after the usual etching of the desired thickness of the PS. 

Porous anodic alumina films were formed by a two-step anodic oxidation of aluminum foil (99.99% purity) (thickness 100 jum) or of thin aluminum film sputtered onto silicon substrate. First step was performed under lOmA/cm constant current density in 40 g/1 aqueous solution of (COOH)2 during 60 min. After first anodization the formed anodic oxide was removed in the aqueous solution of 0.35 M H3PO4 and 0.2 M CrOs at 90°C. The second anodization was performed in the same regimes as the first one. The formed oxide was removed from the specimen after the first anodization. Nanostructured aluminum samples were rinsed in deionized water and dried in an argon flow. 

Porous silicon (PS) is a material that is formed by anodic dissolution of silicon in HF solutions. The formation of PS was first reported in the late 1950s in studies on electropolishing of silicon. Since then, particularly after 1990 when luminescence of PS was discovered, numerous investigations have been undertaken. These investigations have revealed that PS has extremely rich morphological features with properties that are very different from those of silicon and the formation process of PS is a very complex function of many factors such as HF concentration, type of silicon, current density, and illumination intensity. 

Another problem in application of the basic theories is associated with surface geometry. Most theories are developed to describe the relationships among the area-averaged quantities such as charge density, current density, and potentials assuming a uniform electrode surface. In fact, the silicon surface may not be uniform at the micrometer, nanometer, or atomic scales. There can be great variations in the distribution of reactions from extremely uniform, for example, in electropolishing, to extremely nonuniform, for example, in the formation of porous silicon. 

The porous SiC is fabricated from commercial SiC substrate (4H or 6H) by electrochemical etching. An electrolyte is placed in contact with the SiC substrate. A bias is introduced across the electrolyte and the semiconductor materials causing a current to flow between the electrolyte and the semiconductor material. The SiC partially decomposes in this electrolyte and forms high density of pores with nano-scale diameter. This decomposition initiates from the carbon-face of SiC substrate because the carbon-face is less chemically inert compared with the silicon-face. These as-etched pores have a depth of approximately 200 pm but do not reach the silicon-face of SiC. To fabricate porous silicon-face SiC (silicon-face is used as the growth plane for GaN), SiC with thickness of tens of micrometers is polished away from the silicon-face to expose the surface pores. Two surface preparation procedures, hydrogen polishing and chemical mechanical polishing, have been applied to the as-polished silicon-face porous SiC to improve its surface perfection. 

The samples with porous layers were fabricated by electrochemical anodic etching of p-type, 12 Ohmcm and n-type 0.01 Ohmcm monocrystalline silicon wafers in 48 % water solution of HF at the current density of 50 mA/cm2. The anodized area of 1 cm in diameter was defined by the window in a Si3N4 thin film mask deposited onto the wafers. The anodization time was chosen in the range of 15-90 min in order to get porous layers of a thickness from 30 to 180 pm. The integral porosity was estimated by gravimetry to be of about 60 %. 

Figure 1. TEM images of porous silicon formed on p-type (left) and n-type (right) wafers by their anodization in 48 % HF acid at the current density of 50 mA/cm2.

Anodic porous alumina is conventionally grown on aluminum foils, as indicated in Fig. 2. Similar self-assembled growth is achieved on Si by depositing an A1 thin film on the front side of a silicon wafer and forming an ohmic contact on the back side that is used as anode. The electrochemical solutions currently used are oxalic or sulfuric acid aqueous solutions. Details for the fabrication of thin alumina templates on Si with adjustable pore size and density are given elsewhere [8]. Electrochemical oxidation of A1 starts from the A1 surface and continues down to the Al/Si interface, following an anodization current density/time curve as shown in Fig. 3. 

Silicon. The snrface of silicon immersed in fluoride media is of interest for semiconductor processing and production of porous silicon (Section 5.7) [541, 542, 549, 550]. A typical current-potential curve of p-Si in a flnoride electrolyte (0.975 MNH4CI + 0.025 MNH4F + 0.025 MHF, pH 2.8) measured at a rotating disk electrode at rotation rate of 3000 rpm and potential scanning speed of 5 mV s is shown in Fig. 7.29. The steep rise of the current density near... 

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