• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.109-112
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• 2002

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 Photoluminescece(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.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.5 no.5
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• pp.194-198
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• 2004

The influences of the deep-level concentration of p-type Si substrates on the optical properties of nano-porous silicon (PS) are investigated by deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) and photoluminescence (PL). Utilizing a Si substrate with Fe contaminations significantly enhanced the PL intensity of PS. All the PS samples formed on Fe-contaminated silicon substrates had stronger PL yield than that of reference PS without any intentional Fe contamination but the emission peak is not significantly changed. For the PS 1000 sample with Fe contamination of 1,000 ppb, the maximum PL intensity showed about ten times stronger PL than that of the reference PS sample. From PL and DLTS results, the PL efficiency strongly depends on the Fe-related trap concentration in Si substrates.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.23-27
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• 2011

Fabrication of porous silicon(PS) double layer by electrochemical etching is the first step in process of ultrathin solar cell using PS layer transfer process. The porosity of the porous silicon layer can be controlled by regulating the formation parameters such as current density and HF concentration. PS layer is fabricated by electrochemical etching in a chemical mixture of HF and ethanol. For electrochemical etching, highly boron doped (100) oriented monocrystalline Si substrates was used. Ths resistivity of silicon is $0.01-0.02\;{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$. The solution composition for electrochemical etching was HF (40%) : $C_2H_5OH$(99 %) : $H_2O$ = 1 : 1 : 2 (by volume). In order to fabricate porous silicon double layer, current density was switched. By switching current density from low to high level, a high-porosity layer was fabricated beneath a low-porosity layer. Etching time affects only the depth of porous silicon layer.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2004.07a
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• pp.146-149
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• 2004

Porous silicon(PS) as an excellent light diffuser can be used as an antireflection layer without other antireflection coating(ARC) materials. PS layers were obtained by electrochemical etching(ECE) anodization of silicon wafers in hydrofluoric acid/ethanol/de-ionized(DI) water solution($HF/EtOH/H_2O$). This technique is based on the selective removal of Si atoms from the sample surface forming a layer of PS with adjustable optical, electrical, and mechanical properties. A PS layer with optimal ARC characteristics was obtained in charge density (Q) of 5.2 $C/cm^2$. The weighted reflectance is reduced from 33 % to 4 % in the wavelength between 400 and 1000 nm. The weighted reflectance with optimized PS layers is much less than that obtained with a commercial SiNx ARC on a potassium hydroxide(KOH) pre-textured multi-crystalline silicon(mc-Si) surface.

• The Korean Journal of Ceramics
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.28-32
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• 1998

This paper reports on photoluminescence (PL), luminescence decay curves, and compositional analysis of porous silicon(PS) which is aged under air ambient by Fourier transform infrared vibrational spectroscopy (FTIR) and by Auger electron spectroscopy (AES). Porous silicos which has been aged under air ambient yields two PL band structures, i.e. blue/violet PL and red PL. The evolution of a blue/violet band is pronounced, especially for thin PS film which is prepared in dilute HF solution. The blue/violet PL band has been observed initially to increrase rapidly with aging, then saturated with further atmospheric aging. The ambient air aged PS exhibits a fast decay time of sub-nanosecond at room temperature and shows appreciably faster decay time than that at 20K. Atmospheric aging of this thin blue/violet luminescing PS yield non-stoichiometric oxide judging from the vibrational spectra of Si-O and AES analysis.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2002.07b
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• pp.792-796
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• 2002

In this work, porous silicon(PS) layer is used as a sensing material to detect organic gases. To do this, PS sensors with membrane structure are fabricated. The sensors were made by applying the technologies of membrane formation by anisotropic etching of silicon, and PS layer formation by anodization in HF solution. From fabricated sensors, current-voltage (I-V) curves were measured against ethanol (called alcohol), methanol and acetone gases evaporated from 0.1 to 0.5% solution concentrations at $36^{\circ}C$. As the result, all curves showed rectifying behavior due to a diode structure between Si and PS, and the conductance of sensor devices increased largely with the organic solution concentration at high voltage of 5V.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.592-597
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• 2004

Porous silicon(PS) has received much attention as a sensitive material of chemical sensors because of its large internal surface area. In this work, we fabricated gas-sensing devices based on the porous silicon layer which could be applicable to the measurement of blood alcohol content(BAC), and estimated their electrical properties. The structure of the sensor is similar to an MIS (metal-insulator-semiconductor) diode and consists of thin Au/oxidized PS/PS/p-Si/Al, where the p-Si substrate is etched anisotropically to reduce the thickness. We measured C-V curves from two types of the samples with the PS layer treated by the different anodization current density of 60 or 100 mA/cm$^2$, in order to compare the sensitivity. As a result, the magnitude and variation of capacitances from the devices with the PS formed under the current density of 100 mA/cm$^2$ were found to be more detectable due to the larger internal surface.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.124-128
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• 2018

N-type porous silicon (PS) layers and thermally oxidized PS layers have been characterized by various measuring techniques such as photoluminescence (PL), Raman spectroscopy, IR, HRSEM and transmittance measurements. The top surface of PS layer shows a stronger photoluminescence peak than its bottom part, and this is ascribed to the difference in number of fine silicon particles of 2~3 nm in diameter. Observed characteristics of PL spectra are explained in terms of microstructures in the n-type PS layers. Common features for both p-type and n-type PS layers are as follows: the parts which can emit visible photoluminescence are not amorphous, but crystalline, and such parts are composed of nanocrystallites of several nm's whose orientations are slightly different from Si substrate, and such fine silicon particles absorb much hydrogen atoms near the surfaces. Light emission is strongly dependent on such fine silicon particles. Photoluminescence is due to charge carrier confinement in such three dimensional structure (sponge-like structure). Characteristics of visible light emission from n-type PS can be explained in terms of modification of band structure accompanied by bandgap widening and localized levels in bandstructure. It is also shown that hydrogen and oxygen atoms existing on residual silicon parts play an important role on emission stability.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.15 no.11
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• pp.963-968
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• 2002

In this work, porous silicon (PS) layer is investigated as a sensing material to detect organic vapors such as ethanol (called alcohol), methanol, and acetone in low concentrations. To do this, PS sensors were fabricated. They have a membrane structure and comb-type electrodes were used to detect the change of electrical resistance effectively. PS layer on Si substrates was formed by anodization in HF solution of 25%. From fabricated sensors, current-voltage (Ⅰ-Ⅴ) curves were measured for gases evaporated from 0.1 to 0.5% organic solution concentrations at 36$\^{C}$. As the result, all curves showed rectifying behavior due to a diode structure between Si and the PS layer. The conductance of most sensors increased largely at high voltage of 5V, but the built-in potential on the measured Ⅰ-Ⅴ curve was lowered inversely by the adsorption effect of the organic vapors with high dipole moment.

• The Korean Journal of Ceramics
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.137-141
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• 1996

Ambient air aged anodically etched porous silicon (PS) and spark-processed silicon (sp-Si) show interesting similarities and dissimilarities in some of their luminescence-related properties. Among these similarties are: (1) the photoluminescence (PL) peak maximum in the blue/violet (410 nm);(2) the blue/violet PL peak positions are essentially unchanged with temperature ; (3) PL decay times in the nanosecond region which are independent of the detection wavelength, which is much faster in decay times compared to that of observed decay time in $SiO_2$.Among the dissimilarities are: (1) the PL intensity of blue/violet luminescence, namely, the PL intensity of sp-Si is at least 2 orders of magnitude larger than that of an ambient air aged PS; (2) the blue/violet PL intensity of sp-Si is more stable than that of ambient air aged PS under UV illuminations; (3) FTIR spectra of sp-Si favor those modes, which involve silicon -oxygen bonds in $SiO_2$ stoichiometry, whereas ambient air aged PS can be considered as a nonstoichiometric oxide judging from the observed vibrational spectra.