The effect of current density on the structures and photoluminescence of n-type porous silicon

Abstract

Porous silicon (PS) layers were formed on n-type silicon (Si) wafers using Photo- electrochemical Etching technique (PEC) was used to produce porous silicon for n-type with orientation of (111). The effects of current density were investigated at: (10, 20, 30, 40, and50) mA/cm2 with etching time: 10min. X-ray diffraction studies showed distinct variations between the fresh silicon surface and the synthesized porous silicon. The maximum crystal size of Porous Silicon is (33.9nm) and minimum is (2.6nm) The Atomic force microscopy (AFM) analysis and Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) were used to study the morphology of porous silicon layer. AFM results showed that root mean square (RMS) of roughness and the grain size of porous silicon decreased as etching current density increased and FESEM showed that a homogeneous pattern and confirms the formation of uniform porous silicon. The chemical bonding and structure were investigated by using Fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The band gap of the samples obtained from photoluminescence (PL). These results showed that the band gap of porous silicon increase with increasing porosity.