Study on the photoconductivity characteristics of porous Si

Abstract

We utilized the conventional planar fabrication technique and the electrochemical etching method to prepare porous Si layers in the p-type region of a p-n junction, which makes the study on the transverse transport property of this material possible. The junctions were fabricated by low energy ion implantation, with porous Si formed perpendicular to the junction and between two metal contacts. This structure confines currents to the direction parallel to the surface. Distinct photoconductivity and photovoltaic effects have been clearly revealed from the I-V curves.

Photosensitive porous silicon based structures

“…Since the discovery of effective visible photoluminescence (PL) at room temperature from highly porous silicon (PS), a great deal of attention has been paid to its electronic properties because of the potential applications in Si-based optoelectronics. Studies of the photoelectric properties of PS covered such issues as transient and steady-state photoconductivity (PC) on self-supporting PS layers [1,2], PC of PS layers in metal (M)/PS/monocrystalline silicon (c-Si)/M structures [3 5], persistent photocurrent at low (≤ 300 K) temperatures, i.e., a photocurrent which has a very long decay time after a short light exposure [6], photodiode properties of M/PS/c-Si/M structures [3,5,717], their photovoltaic properties [18,19], photo-emf and photoinduced charge trapping in PS [1922], and coordinate-sensitive lateral photovoltaic effect [23,24].…”

A bio-inspired model for bidirectional polarisation detection

“…The nanowire grid was designed to mimic the function of the membrane. Silicon Si [28] was used to transform the optical signal to an electrical signal. The background material was SiO 2 , a non-absorbing insulator.…”