Đây là một bài báo khoa học về dây nano silic trong lĩnh vực nghiên cứu công nghệ nano dành cho những người nghiên cứu sâu về vật lý và khoa học vật liệu.Tài liệu có thể dùng tham khảo cho sinh viên các nghành vật lý và công nghệ có đam mê về khoa học
Trang 1Physica E 28 (2005) 264–272
Role of an electrolyte and substrate on the stability
of porous silicon Shailesh N Sharma , R.K Sharma, S.T Lakshmikumar Materials Division, National Physical Laboratory, Dr K S Krishnan Marg, New Delhi-110012, India
Received 14 March 2005; accepted 21 March 2005
Available online 6 June 2005
Abstract
Porous silicon (PS) layers were prepared by anodization on polished and textured substrates of (1 0 0) Si for a fixed anodization time at different current densities in different HF-based electrolytes Highly stable, mechanically strong, hydrogen-passivated surface and thick porous silicon films have been obtained using HF:ethanol-based electrolyte on textured silicon substrates Porous silicon formed using HF:ethanol as an electrolyte exhibits superior properties compared to porous silicon formed using HF:H2O2-based electrolyte at the same current density, time of anodization and type of substrate Porous silicon films formed on textured substrates exhibits higher porosity and photoluminescence efficiency, negligible PL decay, better mechanical strength, adherence to the substrate, non-fractured surface morphology and lower stress compared to porous silicon formed on polished silicon substrates at the same current density for both ethanol and H2O2-based electrolytes, respectively Use of textured silicon substrate and ethanol-based electrolyte is a key parameter for the formation of tailored-made porous silicon films for device applications
r2005 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved
PACS: 61.43.Gt; 81.05.Rm; 82.45.Gj
Keywords: Porous silicon layers; HF-electrolytes: Si substrates
1 Introduction
Porous silicon (PS) exhibits visible
photolumi-nescence and electrolumiphotolumi-nescence which has
gen-erated considerable interest [1] The potential of
porous silicon for various technological applica-tions such as chemical sensors [2], optoelectronic devices [3], displays[4]and photodetectors[5]has been extensively investigated Recent emphasis has been on the utilization of the large surface area of the porous layers for chemical and biological applications[6] It is possible to control the degree
of porosity of the porous layers formed by electro-chemical etching in HF-containing electrolytes (ethanol, hydrogen peroxide, etc.) However, the
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doi:10.1016/j.physe.2005.03.020
Corresponding author Tel.: 91 11 25742609 14x2409;
fax: 91 11 25726938, 25726952.
E-mail address: shailesh@mail.nplindia.ernet.in
(S.N Sharma).
Trang 2nanoscale structure of PS leads to an enormous
increase in surface area and the presence of large
number of unpaired bonds at the surface which
alter the surface recombination rates and
conse-quently the PL efficiency, surface reactivity and
stability[7] Several approaches have been tried for
preparing uniformly bonded stable surfaces The
formation of a high-quality oxide surface layer is
now accepted as a good solution to the formation
of a stable surface and improved luminescent
silicon particles in an optically transparent
med-ium is another way of isolating the surface from
the ambient and providing a stable luminescence
[9] Recently, the use of alkyl-terminated
mono-layers as a mean of stabilizing the PS surface has
received attention where Si–H bonds at the surface
during PS formation are replaced by a hydrophilic
alkyl termination[10]
The electrolyte composition is one of the most
important fabrication parameter for well-defined
porous layers The pore dimensions and porosity
change with different ratios of electrolytes
Var-ious electrolytes have been used for the fabrication
of porous silicon viz, HF, ethanol, H2O2 and
HNO3 [1,11,12] HF is mainly used for the
dissolution of silicon, ethanol is basically used to
reduce the surface tension of the electrolytic
mixture since surface wetting is important for
good pore uniformity Recently thrust has been
given on H2O2-based electrolytes preferably as an
oxidizing agent [12] The photochemical etching
method with H2O2 solution does not generate a
toxic material unlike in the case of HNO3 [11]
Moreover, the addition of H2O2 to the etching
mixture raises the pH of the solution and produces
ideal Si surfaces terminated with Si–H bonds thus
resulting in a homogeneous PS surface with low
defect density[12]
Recently, we have demonstrated by means of
high-resolution XRD studies that texturization of
silicon surface is an effective method for the
formation of stable and thick porous silicon films
[13] In this paper, using PL decay as a probe, we
are evaluating the degradation of stability of PS on
electrolyte (HF–C2H5OH and HF–H2O2) and
current density formed on textured and polished
Si substrates, respectively The emphasis is mainly
on the development of PS with high and stable PL, control of pore size distribution and therefore a better control on the formation process
2 Experimental
Boron-doped p-type Si wafers of (1 0 0) orienta-tion, 8–10 ohm cm resistivity and 400 mm thickness were used for preparing PS The wafers were polished in 40% NaOH for 2 min These wafers were textured using 2% NaOH at 85 1C for 30 min For forming the back contact, Ag–Al paste was screen printed on the wafer and dried at 250 1C The wafer was then heated to 750 1C for 2 min in
an IR furnace PS was formed by the standard anodization process using Si as the anode and Pt as the counter electrode in an acid resistant container The anodization was carried out at 20–50 mA cm2 for 30 min, in two different electrolytes The first is
which is almost universally used [1]and would be abbreviated as electrolyte A The second is a mixture of HF and H2O2 (1:1 by volume) which was extensively used by Nafeh et al.[12]and would
be abbreviated as electrolyte B After the anodiza-tion, the films were washed in deionized water and ethanol and dried in nitrogen The samples were subjected to continuous agitation in an ultrasonic cleaner to evaluate the speed with which the sample
is destroyed The weight of the sample is con-tinuously monitored The PL was measured using a home assembled system consisting of a two-stage monochromator, a photomultiplier tube (PMT) with a lock-in amplifier for PL detection, and an
(corresponding to 0.125 W cm2) for excitation in all the measurements Decay of PL intensity has been used as a measure of the stability of the
studies, the sample was continuously exposed to the laser radiation and PL measurements were carried out at regular intervals
3 Results and discussion
Good porous silicon films exhibiting high photoluminescence intensity could be formed on
Trang 3both textured and polished substrates at various
current densities corresponding to both
electro-lytes A and B, respectively The porosity (45–80%)
and thickness (12–96 mm) of PS films were
Fig 1 shows porosity values as a function of Id
for PS films formed on textured and polished
substrates corresponding to both electrolytes A
and B, respectively As shown inFig 1, porosity of
PS films increases with increase in current density
As evident fromFig 1, PS films corresponding to
electrolyte B exhibits higher porosity as compared
to the corresponding films of electrolyte A for both
textured and polished substrates
Fig 2(A) shows the weight loss of PS films
prepared using electrolyte A at different Id, as a
function of time of ultrasonic treatment There is a
substantial weight loss of PS samples on polished
substrates when subjected to an ultrasonic
treat-ment for an hour by which time the entire porous
layer has been removed and the loss of weight
saturates However, for textured PS films, the
weight loss is marginal The rate of weight loss
increases with increase in Id and this effect is felt
more on PS films prepared on polished substrates
Results of weight loss for PS films prepared
using electrolyte B are shown inFig 2(B) In this
case some loss is observed for textured samples also However, the rate of weight loss increases with Id and is much higher for the untextured samples (Fig 2(B))
Typical PL curves for PS films formed at
50 mA cm2) on textured and polished substrates corresponding to electrolytes A and B are shown
in Figs 3(A) and (B) As evident from Figs 3(A) and (B), the absolute PL intensity is higher for the porous silicon formed on textured substrates and for PS films corresponding to electrolyte B owing
40
50
60
70
80
(d) (c) (b) (a)
Fig 1 Porosity of PS as a function of current density (I d ); (a)
textured substrate, electrolyte B; (b) polished substrate,
electrolyte B; (c) textured substrate, electrolyte A; (d) polished
substrate, electrolyte A.
0.3450 0.3455 0.3460 0.3465 0.3470 0.3475 0.3480 0.3485
(c)
(e)
(f)
(b)
(d)
(a)
Time of Ultrasonic treatment (mins.)
0.3450 0.3455 0.3460 0.3465 0.3470 0.3475 0.3480 0.3485 0.3490
(b)
(d) (e)
(f)
(a) (c)
Time of ultrasonic treatment (mins.)
(A)
(B)
Fig 2 Weight loss of porous silicon samples prepared at different current densities (I d ) for (A) electrolyte A and (B) electrolyte B; (a) textured substrate, I d ¼ 20 mA cm 2 ; (b) polished substrate, I d ¼ 20 mA cm 2 ; (c) textured substrate,
I d ¼ 35 mA cm 2 ; (d) polished substrate, I d ¼ 35 mA cm 2 ; (e) textured substrate, I d ¼ 50 mA cm 2 and (f) polished substrate,
I d ¼ 50 mA cm 2
Trang 4to its higher porosity Fig 3(A) shows that with
increase in Id from 20 to 50 mA cm2for
electro-lyte A, the PL peak position shifts towards low-l
side for PS films formed on both textured and
polished substrates Similarly, for PS samples
corresponding to electrolyte B, the blue-shift of
the PL peak position is more prominent with
the PL peak being at 650 nm as compared to
610 nm for PS films prepared on textured
sub-strates corresponding to electrolyte A at higher
Id50 mA cm2 (Fig 3(B)) This trend is quite prominent for PS films formed on textured substrates as compared to the corresponding films formed on polished substrates for both electrolytes
A and B, respectively (Figs 3(A) and (B)) These results are in accordance with quantum confine-ment effects[1] It is known that the peak position
of the PL intensity is blue shifted when HF-H2O2
is used as the electrolyte [15] A marginal shift in
PL peak position towards low l side is also observed upon texturization (Figs 3(A) and (B)) Visual observation shows that the porous silicon films corresponding to electrolyte A formed on textured surfaces appear more uniform and strong
as compared to the corresponding films prepared using electrolyte B The PS films at higher current densities (IdX35 mA cm2) on polished substrates shows a break off in PL curves as these films are powdery in nature and hence unstable corre-sponding to both electrolytes A and B PS films prepared using B are more powdery in nature and shows peeling-off tendency particularly for films prepared on polished substrates This is even more obvious for films formed at higher Id
(X50 mA cm2)
Decay of PL intensity is a good indication of the stability of porous silicon particularly of the surface bond configurations [3,16] In Fig 4(A), decay of the PL intensity at the peak wave-length due to exposure to the laser radiation for porous silicon films formed at different Id ¼ ð20250 mA cm2Þon textured and polished silicon substrates for electrolyte A are compared Simi-larly, the corresponding PL-decay curves for electrolyte B are shown inFig 4(B) The PL peak position was recorded for different times corre-sponding to a fixed wavelength As shown inFigs 4(A) and (B), significant decay of the PL intensity
is observed for PS films formed on polished substrate and the rate of decay increases with increase in Id This is observed for both A and B-based electrolytes with the rate of PL decay being higher for electrolyte B as compared to electrolyte
A at all current densities However, for PS films formed on textured silicon, no PL decay was observed when ethanol was used as an electrolyte and a very marginal decay was noted when H2O2 -based electrolyte is used (Figs 4(A) and (B)) To
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
(a)
(f)
(e)
(d) (c) (b)
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
3.5
4.0
(d)
(c) (e)
(f)
(a)
(b)
Wavelength (nm)
Wavelength (nm)
(A)
(B)
Fig 3 PL spectra of porous silicon samples prepared at
different current densities (I d ) for (A) electrolyte A and (B)
electrolyte B; (a) textured substrate, Id¼ 20 mA cm 2 ; (b)
polished substrate, Id¼ 20 mA cm 2 ; (c) textured substrate,
Id¼ 35 mA cm 2 ; (d) Polished substrate, Id¼ 35 mA cm 2 (e)
textured substrate, Id¼ 50 mA cm 2 and (f) polished substrate,
Id¼ 50 mA cm 2
Trang 5ensure the reproducibility of this PL decay,
measurements were done repeatedly and for
several hours and the PL decay trend was found
to be the same This is a direct evidence for the
formation of stable surface and correlates with the
superior mechanical stability of porous silicon
formed on textured substrates
SEM was used to identify the surface
morphol-ogy of the porous silicon formed on textured and
polished Si-substrates at different current den-sities for electrolytes A and B, respectively Silicon nanowires are not visible at these magnifica-tions Figs 5 (A) and (B) show the surface of porous silicon formed on polished silicon at
Id10 mA cm2 corresponding to electrolytes A and B, respectively A plain featureless surface morphology is observed at Id10 mA cm2 for electrolyte A while a cracked surface morphology
is obtained for electrolyte B for the same current density Similar observations on the fragility of thick and highly porous films had been noted earlier [8,17] For electrolyte A-based samples at lower Id, lack of cracking indicates lower stress while the corresponding electrolyte B-based sam-ple exhibits higher stress At Id ¼35 mA cm2, distinct cracking and disintegration is observed for
PS films formed on polished substrates for both electrolytes A and B with the cracking being more pronounced for the latter than for the former (Figs 5(C) and (D)) The higher current density results in increased porosity and the inability of the silicon nanowires to withstand the stress leads
to cracking
The surface morphology of PS films formed on textured substrates is significantly different as compared to polished substrates Figs 6(A) and
35 mA cm2 corresponding to electrolytes A and
B, respectively Here, the smooth surface morphol-ogy consists of randomly sized and spaced pyramids homogeneously distributed on the sur-face The pyramids appear to be more sharply separated but no macroscopic cracking is observed even for electrolyte B-based sample unlike in the case of PS film formed polished silicon substrate for the same current density (Figs 6(A) and (B)) This surface morphology does not essentially differ from the textured silicon substrate (not shown) and is not affected by current density On polished silicon substrates, PS layers showed a tendency to have a mechanically weak structure at higher current densities (Id50 mA cm2) owing to its higher porosity resulting in many cracks or peeling off the film from the substrate This effect
is more prominent for electrolyte B-based samples than for electrolyte A-based samples However,
0.0
0.8
1.6
2.4
3.2
4.0
(d)
(c) (b) (a)
Time (mins)
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
(f)
(b) (e)
(d)
(c) (a)
Time (mins.)
(A)
(B)
Fig 4 PL decay of porous silicon samples prepared at different
current densities (I d ) as a function of time of laser exposure for
(A) electrolyte A and (B) electrolyte B; (a) textured substrate,
Id¼ 20 mA cm 2 ; (b) polished substrate, Id¼ 20 mA cm 2 ; (c)
textured substrate, Id¼ 35 mA cm 2 ; (d) polished substrate,
Id¼ 35 mA cm 2 ; (e) textured substrate, Id¼ 50 mA cm 2 ;
and (f) polished substrate, Id¼ 50 mA cm 2
Trang 6this is not so in the case of textured substrates The
cracks observed for PS films formed on polished
substrates for both electrolytes A and B indicates
higher stress and as a consequence, higher PL
decay is observed Whereas PS samples formed on
textured substrates are marked by smooth surface
morphology, lower stress and consequently, neg-ligible PL decay
In order to identify the chemical composition of our samples, we have investigated the Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) absorption spectra From our FTIR data (Fig 7) obtained for freshly
Fig 5 Scanning electron micrographs of porous silicon prepared on polished substrates at different current densities (I d ); (A)
I d ¼ 10 mA cm 2 , electrolyte A; (B) I d ¼ 10 mA cm 2 , electrolyte B; (C) I d ¼ 35 mA cm 2 , electrolyte A; (D) I d ¼ 35 mA cm 2 , electrolyte B.
Fig 6 Scanning electron micrographs of porous silicon prepared on textured substrates at Id¼ 35 mA cm 2 ; (A) electrolyte A; (B) electrolyte B.
Trang 7prepared samples, it is clear that there are a
number of distinct peaks with different intensities
Figs 7(a) and (b)shows FTIR absorption spectra
for PS samples prepared using electrolyte A at
Id ¼20 mA cm2 on textured and polished
sub-strates, respectively PS films prepared on textured
substrates exhibit mainly Si–H related modes at
910 cm1due to Si–H2scissors or Si–H3symmetric
660 cm1 due to Si–H2and Si–H wagging [19,20]
while for Si–O related modes are marked by a
interstitial Si–O–Si asymmetric stretching mode
[18] However, PS films prepared on polished
substrates exhibits mainly Si–O-related peaks with
a doublet showing peaks at 2256 cm1which is
attributed to Si–H stretching modes when the
silicon is backbonded to oxygen atoms[21]and at
2117 cm1due to Si–H stretching mode, broad
1010 cm1due to Si–O–Si stretching mode and
non-stretching Si–H modes[20]and no signal of Si–H
observed It is worthwhile to note that there is no
signature of any O atoms backbonded to Si–H
related mode at 2250 cm1for PS films prepared
on textured substrates (Fig 7(a)) Another inter-esting difference noted in the FTIR spectra of PS films using electrolyte A prepared on textured and polished substrates is the shift of Si–O related
increase in the oxidation state (x) of the SiOx
species [22] For H2O2-based (B) samples formed
(Fig 7(c)) shows characteristic peaks of both Si–H and Si–O-related modes with a doublet comprising of peak at 2256 cm1(O backbonded
to Si in SiH stretching mode) and at 2117 cm1 (SiH stretching mode), a distinct broad peak at
1215 cm1(Si–O–Si) stretching mode, a broad peak doublet comprising of peaks at 940 and
bending modes and a shoulder at 650 cm1due
to Si–H wagging modes, respectively However, for the corresponding PS sample formed on polished substrate, the FTIR spectrum (Fig 7(d)) exhibits mainly Si–O-related modes at 2250 cm1 (O backbonded to SiH mode), a broad peak
(Si–O–Si stretching mode) with weak contribu-tions at 880 and 805 cm1(Si–H-related bending and wagging modes) Here inFig 7(d), the notable feature is the absence of Si–H stretching at
Thus, silicon–hydrogen-related modes are stronger for PS samples prepared on textured substrates while silicon–oxygen-related modes are stronger for the corresponding films prepared on polished substrates for the same current density and electrolyte The effect of oxidation is felt more for H2O2-based PS films particularly formed on polished substrates as compared to ethanol-based
PS films From the above results, it can be conjectured that there is a change in the surface passivation from hydrogen to oxygen-like species
as we go from textured to polished substrate for
(Id20 mA cm2) for both the electrolytes A and
B, respectively In case of H2O2-based PS films (B),
a significant blue shift in PL spectra as compared
to the corresponding ethanol based films could be due to the enhanced oxidation of surface of nanocrystalline Si resulting in an increase of SiOx
thickness surrounding the Si-core Oxidation of
2500 2250 2000 1750 1500 1250 1000 750 500
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
3.5
(d) (c)
(b)
(a)
Wavenumber (cm-1)
Fig 7 FTIR absorption spectra of porous silicon prepared at
current density Id¼ 20 mA cm 2 ; (a) textured substrate,
electrolyte A; (b) polished substrate, electrolyte A; (c) textured
substrate, electrolyte B; (d) polished substrate, electrolyte B.
Trang 8nanocrystalline Si causes shrinkage of the Si-core
due to the breaking of Si–Si bonds resulting in a
blue-shift in PL spectra[11] However, apart from
interpretation in terms of quantum confinement in
silicon clusters that decrease in size upon
oxida-tion, the PL blue shift can also be related to Si–O
species or due to defects and the silica networks on
which OH groups are absorbed as suggested by
others [23] These results are in accordance with
our PL and SEM studies where a significant PL
decay and cracked surface morphology was
observed for PS films formed on polished
sub-strates which underlines the importance of
tex-tured substrates and ethanol-based PS films which
exhibits stable PL, smooth surface morphology
and H-passivated surfaces
Previous measurements showed that using H2O2
in a HF-based electrolytic mixture results in the
termination of Si surfaces mainly with
silicon-monohydrides leading to the formation of stable
contrary to other studies, we have found that
ethanol-based PS films formed on textured
sub-strates are relatively more mechanically strong,
stable, stress-free and highly passivated with
hydrogen than the corresponding H2O2-based PS
films as elucidated by our weight loss
measure-ments, PL, SEM and FTIR studies It seems that
the improved luminescent properties of our PS
films is more an artifact of the substrate (textured
one) rather than that of the electrolyte alone On
the textured surface, the nucleation of nanopores
is preferentially initiated at the boundaries
be-tween the pyramids This would be assisted by the
faceted surfaces compared to the /1 0 0S surface
exposed at the boundaries This may lead to
partial merging of nanopores and the formation of
a high porosity region which can deform and
release the stress at dimensions small enough to
prevent macroscopic crack formation and fragility
Thus high porosity of PS films formed on textured
substrates can be explained However, in case of
PS films formed on polished substrates, the etching
is not preferential but random thus resulting in
lower porosity of PS layers However, the proper
choice of both the substrate (textured) and the
electrolyte (ethanol-based) in conjunction can have
a profound effect in improving the luminescent properties and stability of porous silicon films
4 Conclusions
The visual observation of mechanically strong, stable surface bond configuration, smooth surface morphology and hydrogen-passivated PS surfaces essentially conforms the viability of textured substrates and ethanol-based electrolyte as a requisite condition for the formation of highly luminescent, thick and stable porous silicon films Porous silicon using ethanol-based electrolyte is superior to porous silicon formed using H2O2 -based electrolyte at the same current density on both textured and polished substrates, respec-tively A proper choice of a substrate and an electrolyte are essential for the formation of highly porous silicon films with lower fragility, superior stability and long-term usability
Acknowledgements
We thank Director NPL for permission to publish this work supported by CSIR network project on custom tailored special materials RKS thanks CSIR for providing a research associate-ship We acknowledge the help of Dr Ramkishore and Shri K.N Sood for SEM work and of Dr V.K Kaul (CEL) for sample preparation
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