Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T17:57:06.833Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Reciprocal Space Analysis of the Microstructure of Luminescent and Nonluminescent Porous Silicon Films

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2011

S.R. Lee
Affiliation:
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM 87185
J.C. Barbour
Affiliation:
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM 87185
J.W. Medernach
Affiliation:
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM 87185
J.O. Stevenson
Affiliation:
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM 87185
J.S. Custer
Affiliation:
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM 87185
Get access

Abstract

The microstructure of anodically prepared porous silicon films was determined using a novel x-ray diffraction technique. This technique uses double-crystal diffractometry combined with position-sensitive x-ray detection to efficiently and quantitatively image the reciprocal space structure of crystalline materials. Reciprocal space analysis of newly prepared, as well as aged, p+ porous silicon films showed that these films exhibit a very broad range of crystallinity. This material appears to range in structure from a strained, single-crystal, sponge-like material exhibiting long-range coherency to isolated, dilated nanocrystals embedded in an amorphous matrix. Reciprocal space analysis of n+ and p+ porous silicon showed these materials are strained single-crystals with a spatially-correlated array of vertical pores. The vertical pores in these crystals may be surrounded by nanoporous or nanocrystalline domains as small as a few nm in size which produce diffuse diffraction indicating their presence. The photoluminescence of these films was examined using 488 nm Ar laser excitation in order to search for possible correlations between photoluminescent intensity and crystalline microstructure.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1 Guilinger, T.R., Kelly, M.J., Stevenson, J.O., Howard, A.J., Houston, J.E. and Tsao, S.S., in Proceedings of the Electrochemical Microfabrication Symposium, The Electrochemical Society, Phoenix, AZ, Oct. 1318, 1991.Google Scholar
2 Thompson, L.R., Collins, G.J., Doyle, B.L. and Knapp, J.A., J. Appl. Phys. 70, 4760 (1991).Google Scholar
3 Picraux, S.T., Doyle, B.L. and Tsao, J.Y., in Semiconductors and Semimetals 33, edited by Pearsall, T.P. (Academic Press, Boston, 1991), pp. 139220.Google Scholar
4 Lee, S.R., Doyle, B.L., Drummond, T.J., Medernach, J.W. and Schneider, R.P. Jr., to be published in Advances in X-Ray Analysis 38, Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Conference on Applications of X-Ray Analysis, Steamboat Springs, CO, August 1-5, 1994.Google Scholar
5 Warren, B. E., X-Ray Diffraction. (Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1969), pp. 2730.Google Scholar
6 Hamasaki, M., Adachi, T., Wakayama, S. and Kikuchi, M., J. Appl. Phys. 49, 3987 (1978).Google Scholar
7 Veprek, S., Iqbal, Z., Oswald, H.R., Sarott, F.-A., Wagner, J.J. and Webb, A.P., Solid State Commun. 39, 509(1981).Google Scholar
8 Barla, K., Hérino, R., Bomchil, G. and Pfister, J.C., J. Cryst. Growth 68, 727 (1984).Google Scholar
9 Young, I.M., Beale, M.I.J. and Benjamin, J.D., Appl. Phys. Lett. 46, 1133 (1985).Google Scholar
10 Bensaid, A., Patrat, G., Brunei, M., de Bergevin, F. and Hérino, R., Solid State Commun. 79, 923 (1991).Google Scholar
11 Medernach, J.W. and Headley, T.J. (private communication).Google Scholar