Study of Porous Silicon Prepared Using Metal-Induced Etching (MIE): a Comparison with Laser-Induced Etching (LIE)

Abstract

Porous silicon (p-Si), prepared by two routes (metal induced etching (MIE) and laser induced etching (LIE)) have been studied by comparing the surface morphologies. A uniformly distributed smaller (submicron sized) pores are formed when MIE technique is used because the pore formation is driven by uniformly distributed metal (silver in present case) nanoparticles, deposited prior to the porosification step. Whereas in p-Si samples prepared by LIE technique, wider pores with some variation in pore size as compared to MIE technique is observed because a laser having gaussian profile of intensity is used for porosification. Uniformly distribute well-aligned Si nanowires are observed in samples prepared by MIE method as seen using cross-sectional SEM imaging, which shows a single photoluminescence (PL) peak at 1.96 eV corresponding to red emission at room temperature. The single PL peak confirms the presence of uniform sized nanowires in MIE samples. These vertically aligned Si nanowires can be used for field emission application. ‡ Corresponding Author: rajeshkumar@iiti.ac.in arXiv:1403.6269v1 [cond-mat.mes-hall]

Raman spectroscopy for study of interplay between phonon confinement and Fano effect in silicon nanowires

“…In this work, we have done a comprehensive study of quantum confinement and Fano effect in p‐ and n‐type SiNWs with different doping levels prepared using a simple technique known as metal induced chemical etching (MIE) . Such systems with high doping and low dimensionality are expected to exhibit quantum confinement effect and Fano interaction which itself is dependent on quantum confinement effect.…”

“…. The cross‐sectional image from sample n − contains well aligned SiNWs arrays which are uniform on the entire wafer surface and can be seen that the nanowires are all straight, uniform and vertical to the silicon substrate as already reported in literature . Similar vertically well‐aligned SiNWs are formed in sample p − also.…”

Effect of annealing temperature on thermo‐diffusional boron doping of silicon nanowire arrays probed by Raman spectroscopy

“…Because the Raman line shape can be modified by phonon confinement, [ 22–36 ] one should be scrupulous about the possible impact of phonon confinement to the estimations of the FCC concentration in SiNWs. MACE formation of SiNW arrays on highly boron‐doped c‐Si substrates leads to the narrowing of nanowire diameter and additional nanowire porosity that results in a distortion of the lower wavenumber side of Fano‐resonance line.…”

Application of Nano Texturing on Multi-Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells

“…However, the reflectivity obtained by the acid etching method is around 20%, leading to a decrease in efficiency [11 -13]. Recently, several other etching methods, including metal-assisted chemical etching [14 -16], reactive ion etching (RIE) [12, 17 -19], plasma immersion techniques [20], and laser etching [21,22], have been employed to prepare nano texture. By using these methods, the light trapping performance of solar cells can be significantly increased, which is benefit to the decrease of reflectivity.…”