ICOP 2009-International Conference on Optics and Photonics Chandigarh, India, 30 Oct.-1 Nov.

2009

Topic: OED

Preference: Oral

SYNTHESIS OF NANOCRYSTALLINE POROUS SILICON LAYERS BY ANODIZATION METHOD FOR OPTOELECTRONIC APPLICATIONS
R. S. Dubey and 2D. K. Gautam IACQER, Advanced Research Laboratory for Nanomaterials and Devices, Swarnandhra College of Engineering and Technology, Seetharampuram, Narsapur (A.P.), INDIA 2 Department of Electronics, North Maharashtra University, Post Box 80, Umavinagar, Jalgaon (M.S.), INDIA 1 e-mail: rag_pcw@yahoo.co.in
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Abstract: This paper reports the study of optical and structural properties of electrochemically prepared nanocrystalline porous silicon layers. The prepared sample shows red band emission at 670nm and Raman peak at 520cm-1. The AFM image shows cluster like porous silicon surface which plays an important role for the strong visible luminescence.

1. INTRODUCTION Porous silicon is a material which has new aspects for advanced optoelectronics devices and compatible with established standard microelectronics technology [1]. Porous silicon consists of a network of nanoscale sized silicon wires and voids which formed when crystalline silicon wafers are etched electrochemically in hydrofluoric acid based electrolyte solution under constant anodization conditions. The morphology and size-scale of porous silicon features are highly dependent on the fabrication parameters. Today, silicon based photonics technology is fully capable to integrate electrical and optical components on a single chip [2]. As we know that at room temperature, the bulk crystalline silicon has an indirect gap which results in a very inefficient radiative recombination and produced light in the infrared region. Therefore, the strong visible light emission from porous silicon is quite surprising and such structure can exhibit a large variety of morphologies and particles sizes [3]. There are different hypothesis presented on the photoluminescence from porous silicon layers. The first includes the quantum confinement effect which is due to the charge carriers in narrow crystalline silicon wall separating the pore walls, the second is due to the presence of luminescent surface species trapped in the inner walls as the source light emission and the third one is due to the presence of surface confined molecular emitters i.e. siloxene. The crystalline silicon is an important and dominant material over several years due to its well known properties and established infrastructure for photovoltaic manufacturing. It is the basic material for the production of solar cell and about 90% of fabricated solar modules are made of crystalline silicon. Presently, an increasing interest has been shown in antireflection coating made from porous silicon by researcher. Presently, porous silicon has

been used as the basis for passive devices such as photonic crystals, microcavities, waveguides, photodetectors, and biosensors etc. 2. EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS In this work, monolayer of porous silicon was prepared by using <100> oriented boron-doped ptype substrate as a starting material. The anodization setup is reported in [4]. Before synthesis, the silicon wafers were rinsed in de-ionized water after heating separately in trichloroethylene, methanol and acetone for 5min. Further, the cleaned silicon wafers were dried in presence of nitrogen. The electrolyte used was HF(48%):H2O:C2H5OH in a volume ratio of 1:1:2. The mixing of ethanol in electrolyte solution is helpful to improve the lateral homogeneity and the uniformity of the porous silicon layer by promoting the hydrogen bubble removal. Synthesis was done at 50mA/cm2 current density under 3min. etching time. After preparation the prepared sample was characterized for atomic force morphology, photoluminescence and Raman measurements. The photoluminescence was measured by using a monochromator (Jobin Yvon) with an attached charge coupled device and Raman measurement was done using Lympus EX41 Raman Division (HR800). A beam of 488nm line from argon laser at 10mW output power was used for excitation. The surface morphology and roughness was obtained by atomic force microscopy Nanoscope (NSE) in contact mode. 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The prepared porous structure in bulk silicon is strongly responsible for the photoluminescence on its surface which is confirmed by shifting in the band gap energy of bulk silicon. Figure 1 shows the red band emission from nanocrystalline porous silicon layer at centered wavelength 670nm. The photoluminescence (PL) observed form porous

Topic: OED silicon layer is due to the presence of surface confined molecular emitters (siloxene) which is

Preference: Oral law of the quasimomenturn is no longer valid. As a result, all the phonons of dispersion relation estimated with a weight function which contributes to the measured Raman signal. silicon through quantum confinement effect. The shifting of Raman peak attributes the reduction in the phonon energy as a result of disturbances in the silicon lattice due to porous structure. As the maximum part of applied energy is converted into emission hence, the band structure of silicon is modified. The absence of other peak in Raman spectra confirms that the prepared sample retains the crystallinity of bulk silicon wafer.

Fig. 1 Photoluminescence of porous silicon layer. confirmed by FTIR measurement. Figure 2 shows the Raman spectra in which Raman peak can be observed at 520.5cm-1. The Raman peak at 520cm-1points out the less possibility of quantum common confinement effect in our prepared sample. 4 x 10 3

2.5
(Intensity (arb. unit))

Fig. 3 Atomic force microscopy image of porous silicon layer. Figure 3 shows the atomic force microcopy (AFM) image of porous silicon layer in which rough silicon surface can be observed which is regarded as a condensation point for small skelton clusters to form. This cluster like porous silicon surface plays an important role for the strong visible luminescence. 5. CONCLUSIONS We have prepared and characterized the nanocrystalline porous silicon layer to study its structural and optical properties. The prepared sample shows red band emission at 670nm. A sharp Raman peak observed at 520.8cm-1 point out the less possibility of quantum confinement effect in our prepared sample. The surface roughness and pyramid like hillocks surface observed in AFM image. The anodization method is useful to fabricate and realize the red light emitting diodes with low fabrication cost.

2 1.5 1 0.5 0 500

520 530 540 (Raman Shift (1/cm)) Fig. 2 Raman spectra of porous silicon layer.

510

In crystalline silicon, the optical phonon is observed in the center of the Brillouin zone with its energy of 520.5cm-1 and this is due to the conservation of quasimomentum in crystals. It is known that phonons in small crystallites are localized hence; their quasimomentum is no longer well defined according to the uncertainty principle. Thus, the conservation

Topic: OED ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The authors wish to express their gratitude to UCG-DAE, CSR Laboratory, Indore (M. P.), INDIA. REFERENCES [1] Y M Weng, Zh N Fan and X F Zong. Appl. Phys. Lett., Vol. 63, No. 2, 168 (1993).

Preference: Oral

[2] L. Pavesi and R. Guardini, Brazl. J. Phys., Vol.26, No. 01, 152 (1996). [3] T. Canham, Appl. Phys. Lett., Vol. 57, 1046 (1990). [4] R. S. Dubey and D. K. Gautam, J. Opt.& Bio. Mater., Vol. 1, No. 1, 8 (2009).