Can Oxidation and Other Treatments Help Us Understand the Nature of Light-Emitting Porous Silicon?

Abstract

AbstractUsing a careful analysis of the properties of light-emitting porous silicon (LEpSi), we conclude that a version of the “smart” quantum confinement model which was first proposed by F. Koch et al [Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. 283, 197 (1993)] and allows for the existence of surface states and dangling bonds, is compatible with experimental results. Among the new results we present in support of this model, the most striking ones concern the strong infrared photoluminescence that dominates the room temperature cw spectrum after vacuum annealing above 600 K.