Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2011
Through a post treatment of light emitting porous silicon in boilingwater, a large blue shift of its photoluminescence (PL) spectrum hasbeen observed and a stable blue-green light emission at the peak wavelength down to 500 nm is achieved. The effect of boiling water treatment is suggested to be a kind of oxidation, which could reduce thesize of the Si column, fill up some micropores and strengthen the Siskeleton. The photoluminescence microscopic observation shows that the surface of blue light emitting porous silicon is composed of manysmall uniformly light-emitting domains at the size of several tens of μm. Fourier transform infrared reflection (FTIR) measurements show that the formation of Si-H bonds is not responsible for the visible luminescence in the very thin Si wires.