Interpretation of the luminescence quenching in chemically etched porous silicon by the desorption of SiH3 species

Abstract

The effect of thermal annealing on chemically etched porous silicon was studied by combined photoluminescence, infrared spectrometry, and thermal-desorption spectrometry experiments. The results show that the release of SiH3 and SiF3 entities is a first step in the photoluminescence degradation in porous silicon. These entities desorb before molecular hydrogen.