Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 September 2012
The anodic oxidation of p-Si(100) in aqueous NH4F solution is investigated in-situ by photoluminescence (PL) with short N2-laser pulses as a function of pH at constant potential. The PL intensity depends sensitively on the modification of the Si surface and on the change of the oxidation rate during current oscillations. The interruption of the anodic oxidation at the maximum of a current oscillation peak leads to a current transient which shows typical features of oxide removal and hydrogenation for two different oxide thicknesses. This makes it possible to realize an intermediate state of the Si surface with a coexisting hydrophilic (oxide) and hydrophobic (hydrogenated) part.