Visible electroluminescence (EL) has been obtained from porous silicon cathodically biased in an aqueous electrolyte containing either the persulphate or the peroxide ion. EL efficiencies of up to 0.1% have been obtained from porous silicon formed on both n-type and p-type substrates for the application of only a few volts bias. In subdued lighting, the EL is easily visible to the naked eye at excitation densities of 0.1 W cm−2. EL is obtained only from porous silicon capable of giving photoluminescence (PL); the EL and PL spectra are broadly similar in width and peak wavelength. The EL spectra are reversibly shifted to shorter wavelengths as the magnitude of the bias is increased. In contrast with the previously reported EL under anodic conditions, this cathodic EL process does not irreversibly oxidize the porous silicon skeleton.

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The stability of derivatized mesoporous silicon in a physiological environment is investigated and potential applications are discussed. It is shown that, while the surface of hydride‐terminated mesoporous silicon corrodes very rapidly upon exposure to simulated body fluid (see Figure), the dodecenyl‐terminated material is virtually untouched even after a much longer period of time.

To use porous silicon as an optical interferometric biosensor, the pores must be sufficiently large to allow easy ingress of reagents and the layer must also display Fabry-Perot optical cavity modes. Here the detection antibody is rabbit IgG and the analyte is a-rabbit IgG conjugated to horseradish peroxidase (HRP). For this model system, the pores should be >50 nm in diameter. Such diameters have been obtained in 0.05 W cm n-type silicon using anodisation followed by chemical etching in ethanolic KOH and also by anodising 0.005 W cm p-type material. The latter also displays optical cavity modes. The silicon surface is oxidised in ozone, silanised using aminopropylmethoxysilanes with one, two or three methoxy groups, and cross linked to IgG using glutaraldehyde. High specific binding is found for mono-, di-and tri-methoxy silanes, but the lowest nonspecific binding is found for silanisation with the tri-methoxy silane.