The current transport mechanism through porous silicon ~PS! films fabricated from 8 to 12 V cm p-type silicon (p-Si) substrates has been investigated using current–voltage I(V) measurements on metal/PS/p-Si/metal devices in the temperature range of 77–300 K. The characteristics for all devices show a rectifying behavior with ideality factor very close to unity. A value of 0.7 eV is obtained for...

In this work a two-step procedure is reported for the formation of ZnO/porous silicon (PS) composites in which ZnO is embedded in the pores of sponge like mesoporous silicon. The procedure consists of an isothermal annealing of the PS layer in Zn vapors using a close space configuration and a subsequent oxidation of the Zn infiltrated in the pores. The oxidation agent and the annealing duration...

The effect of plasma fluorination on the band gap, 2p core-level energy, and the dielectric behavior of porous silicon ~PS! prepared under constant conditions has been examined using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, photoluminescence, and reflection. It has been found that with increasing extent of fluorination, the band gap expands, and the 2p level an...

The porous silicon (PS) surface modification diagnostics due to functionalization and water adsorption/desorption processes were provided by the self-action effects of picosecond range pulsed laser radiation at 1064 nm. It was shown that the PS surface functionalization-oxide removal, alkylation, and oxidation-resulted in a refractive nonlinear optical (NLO) response sign turn to self-focusing ...

The localized irradiation of Si allows a precise patterning at the microscale of nanostructured materials such as porous silicon (PS). PS patterns with precisely defined geometries can be fabricated using ion stopping masks. The nanoscale textured micropatterns were used to explore their influence as microenvironments for human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs). In fact, the change of photolumines...

The aims of this work are to getter undesirable impurities from low-cost multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si) wafers and then enhance their electronic properties. We used an efficient process which consists of applying phosphorus diffusion into a sacrificial porous silicon (PS) layer in which the gettered impurities have been trapped after the heat treatment. As we have expected, after removing the...

This work focuses on photodetector Au:MgO nano-particles (NPs) have been prepared by laser ablation at various energies then deposited porous-Si (PS). PS are produced with the use of photo-electrochemical etching approach for n-type crystalline Si wafers (100) orientation. XRD, scanning electron microscope, UV–visible spector-photometer and electrical characteristics that utilized characterizat...

The amount of light reflection from the surface is the main obstacle in efficient solar cell performance because reflection is related to the refractive index of the material. For instance, the silicon (Si) refractive index is 3.5, (which can rise by up to 35%), which prevents an electron-hole pair from being generated and could reduce the efficiency of photovoltaic converters. Antireflection c...

Photoluminescence (PL) measurements have been performed on the nanocomposites of higher fullerene-coupled porous silicon (PS) nanocrystals. For the C70PS and C76(78)PS nanocomposites, the PL spectra show a pinning wavelength at approximately 565 nm and for the C84PS and C94PS nanosystems the pinning wavelength is at approximately 590 nm. The PL pinning property is closely related to the sorts o...

Herein, we prepare vertical and single crystalline porous silicon nanowires (SiNWs) via a two-step metal-assisted electroless etching method. The porosity of the nanowires is restricted by etchant concentration, etching time and doping lever of the silicon wafer. The diffusion of silver ions could lead to the nucleation of silver nanoparticles on the nanowires and open new etching ways. Like po...