Electroluminescence of porous silicon

Abstract

The performance of porous silicon visible light-emitting diodes is reviewed and compared to those of silicon nanocrystals prepared by other fabrication routes. Efficiencies up to 1 % have been achieved with porous silicon but almost up to 10 % with silicon nanocrystal-polymer composites. Challenges with simultaneously achieving high efficiency, output power, stability, and modulation speed are highlighted. Further improvements could be realized from narrowing the skeleton size distribution and improving the electronic transport and surface passivation of porous silicon.