FTIR investigation of porous silicon formed in deutrofluoric acid based solutions

Abstract

Absorption of infrared radiation in the porous silicon (PS) films prepared by common electrochemical etching in DF-ethanol-D 6 solutions was studied. We report our results of the effect of deuterium termination on the process of surface states changes of the PS after their exposure to ambient air for few months. In addition to these results, we also show that the replacement of hydrogen with deuterium leads to decreasing the concentration of the silicon dangling bonds at the surface of the PS. As a result, more stable passivation layer was formed. There were not any detectable quantities of the hydrogen atoms at the surface of PS during few months after its preparation. This fact is explained from the point of view of the dissociative water adsorption mechanism. © 2005 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.