Theory of optical properties of quantum wires in porous silicon

Porous silicon fabrication by electrochemical and photo-electrochemical methods

n and p types of porous silicon were fabricated using two methods electrochemical etching EC and photo-electrochemical etching PEC. Structural studies of both types of porous silicon were carried out by X-Ray Diffraction XRD getting 24.5 nm crystallite size in p-PSi and 28.05 nm in n-PSi, AFM, Fourior-Transformation InfraRed FT-IR.

Spin-Dependent Phenomena in Semiconductor Micro-and Nanoparticles—From Fundamentals to Applications

The present overview of spin-dependent phenomena in nonmagnetic semiconductor microparticles (MPs) and nanoparticles (NPs) with interacting nuclear and electron spins is aimed at covering a gap between the basic properties of spin behavior in solid-state systems and a tremendous growth of the experimental results on biomedical applications of those particles. The first part of the review represents modern achievements of spin-dependent phenomena in the bulk semiconductors from the theory of optical spin orientation under indirect optical injection of carriers and spins in the bulk crystalline silicon (c-Si)—via numerous insightful findings in the realm of characterization and control through the spin polarization—to the design and verification of nuclear spin hyperpolarization in semiconductor MPs and NPs for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) diagnostics. The second part of the review is focused on the electron spin-dependent phenomena in Si-based nanostructures, including the photosensitized generation of singlet oxygen in porous Si and design of Si NPs with unpaired electron spins as prospective contrast agents in MRI. The experimental results are analyzed by considering both the quantum mechanical approach and several phenomenological models for the spin behavior in semiconductor/molecular systems. Advancements and perspectives of the biomedical applications of spin-dependent properties of Si NPs for diagnostics and therapy of cancer are discussed.

Photoconductivity, pH Sensitivity, Noise, and Channel Length Effects in Si Nanowire FET Sensors

Silicon nanowire (NW) field-effect transistor (FET) sensors of various lengths were fabricated. Transport properties of Si NW FET sensors were investigated involving noise spectroscopy and current-voltage (I-V) characterization. The static I-V dependencies demonstrate the high quality of fabricated silicon FETs without leakage current. Transport and noise properties of NW FET structures were investigated under different light illumination conditions, as well as in sensor configuration in an aqueous solution with different pH values. Furthermore, we studied channel length effects on the photoconductivity, noise, and pH sensitivity. The magnitude of the channel current is approximately inversely proportional to the length of the current channel, and the pH sensitivity increases with the increase of channel length approaching the Nernst limit value of 59.5 mV/pH. We demonstrate that dominant 1/f-noise can be screened by the generation-recombination plateau at certain pH of the solution or external optical excitation. The characteristic frequency of the generation-recombination noise component decreases with increasing of illumination power. Moreover, it is shown that the measured value of the slope of 1/f-noise spectral density dependence on the current channel length is 2.7 which is close to the theoretically predicted value of 3.

Low-field electron mobility of InSb nanowires: Numerical efforts to larger cross sections

Within the framework of Boltzmann equation, we present a k · p theory based study for the low-field mobilities of InSb nanowires (InSb NWs) with relatively large cross sectional sizes (with diameters up to 51.8 nm). For such type of large size nanowires, the intersubband electron-phonon scattering is of crucial importance to affect the scattering rate and then the mobility. In our simulation, the lowest 15 electron subbands and 50 transverse modes of phonons are carefully accounted for. We find that, up to the 51.84 nm diameter, the mobility monotonously increases with the diameter, not yet showing any saturated behavior. We also find that, while the bulk InSb mobility is considerably higher than the bulk Si, the small size (e.g. ~3 nm diameter) nanowires from both materials have similar magnitude of mobilities. This implies, importantly, that the mobility of the InSb NWs would decrease faster than the SiNWs as we reduce the cross sectional size of the nanowires.

One-dimensional Si/Ge nanowires and their heterostructures for multifunctional applications-a review

Remarkable progress has been made in the field of one-dimensional semiconductor nanostructures for electronic and photonic devices. Group-IV semiconductors and their heterostructures have dominated the years of success in microelectronic industry. However their use in photonic devices is limited since they exhibit poor optical activity due to indirect band gap nature of Si and Ge. Reducing their dimensions below a characteristic length scale of various fundamental parameters like exciton Bohr radius, phonon mean free path, critical size of magnetic domains, exciton diffusion length etc result in the significant modification of bulk properties. In particular, light emission from Si/Ge nanowires due to quantum confinement, strain induced band structure modification and impurity doping may lead to the integration of photonic components with mature silicon CMOS technology in near future. Several promising applications based on Si and Ge nanowires have already been well established and studied, while others are now at the early demonstration stage. The control over various forms of energy and carrier transport through the unconstrained dimension makes Si and Ge nanowires a promising platform to manufacture advanced solid-state devices. This review presents the progress of the research with emphasis on their potential application of Si/Ge nanowires and their heterostructures for electronic, photonic, sensing and energy devices.

Studies of Silicon Nanowires with Different Parameters — By PECVD

One-dimensional nanostructures such as nanowires have a wide range of applications. Silicon is the best competitive material for the carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Carbon and silicon have some similar and peculiar properties. Silicon nanowires (SiNWs) were synthesized using plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) on p-Si (111) wafer. Gold is used as a catalyst for the growth of the SiNWs. Based on our fundamental understanding of vapor–liquid–solid (VLS) nanowire growth mechanism, different levels of growth controls have been achieved. Gold catalyst deposited and annealed at different temperatures with different thicknesses (450[Formula: see text]C, 500[Formula: see text]C and 550[Formula: see text]C, 600[Formula: see text]C, 650[Formula: see text]C for 4[Formula: see text]min and 8[Formula: see text]min and 3[Formula: see text]nm, 5[Formula: see text]nm, 30[Formula: see text]nm Au thickness). SiNW grown by PECVD with different carrier gases varies with flow rate. We observed the different dimensions of Si nanowires by FESEM and optimized the growth parameters to get the vertical aligned and singular Si nanowires. Optical phonon of the Si nanowires and crystallinity nature were identified by Raman spectral studies.

Properties of Silicon Dioxide Amorphous Nanopowder Produced by Pulsed Electron Beam Evaporation

SiO2amorphous nanopowder (NP) is produced with the specific surface area of 154 m2/g by means of evaporation by a pulsed electron beam aimed at Aerosil 90 pyrogenic amorphous NP (90 m2/g) as a target. SiO2NP nanoparticles showed improved magnetic, thermal, and optical properties in comparison to Aerosil 90 NP. Possible reasons of emergence of d0ferromagnetism at the room temperature in SiO2amorphous NP are discussed. Photoluminescent and cathode luminescent properties of the SiO2NP were investigated.

Thermal luminescence quenching of amine-functionalized silicon quantum dots: a pH and wavelength-dependent study

The influence of temperature on the PL properties of silicon quantum dots (Si QDs) as a function of pH and excitation wavelength has been investigated to understand the role of surface amine groups and the bandgap of allylamine-capped Si QDs.

Determination of excitation profile and dielectric function spatial nonuniformity in porous silicon by using WKB approach

We develop an analytical model based on the WKB approach to evaluate the experimental results of the femtosecond pump-probe measurements of the transmittance and reflectance obtained on thin membranes of porous silicon. The model allows us to retrieve a pump-induced nonuniform complex dielectric function change along the membrane depth. We show that the model fitting to the experimental data requires a minimal number of fitting parameters while still complying with the restriction imposed by the Kramers-Kronig relation. The developed model has a broad range of applications for experimental data analysis and practical implementation in the design of devices involving a spatially nonuniform dielectric function, such as in biosensing, wave-guiding, solar energy harvesting, photonics and electro-optical devices.

Reversible modulation of spontaneous emission by strain in silicon nanowires

We computationally study the effect of uniaxial strain in modulating the spontaneous emission of photons in silicon nanowires. Our main finding is that a one to two orders of magnitude change in spontaneous emission time occurs due to two distinct mechanisms: (A) Change in wave function symmetry, where within the direct bandgap regime, strain changes the symmetry of wave functions, which in turn leads to a large change of optical dipole matrix element. (B) Direct to indirect bandgap transition which makes the spontaneous photon emission to be of a slow second order process mediated by phonons. This feature uniquely occurs in silicon nanowires while in bulk silicon there is no change of optical properties under any reasonable amount of strain. These results promise new applications of silicon nanowires as optoelectronic devices including a mechanism for lasing. Our results are verifiable using existing experimental techniques of applying strain to nanowires.

First-principles study of silicon nanowire approaching the bulk limit

First-principles density functional theory calculations on hydrogenated silicon nanowires (SiNWs) with diameters up to 7.3 nm are carried out for comparing to experimentally relevant SiNWs and evaluating its radial doping profiles. We show that the direct band gap nature of both the small diameter (110) and (100) SiNWs fades when the diameter reaches beyond about 4 nm, where the difference of direct and indirect band gaps are close, within the experimental measurement uncertainty of ±0.1 eV, suggesting the diameter size where the gap nature transition starts. In addition, we reveal that core-surface boron (B) codoped SiNW forms more preferably at large diameter than that of the surface-surface codoped one, attributing to the lower energy configuration raised by the core B dopant at large diameter SiNW. More importantly, the diameter for such a preferential transition increases as the doping concentration decreases. Our results rationalize photoluminescent measurements and radial doping distributions of SiNWs.

Characterization of Porous Silicon: Structural, Optical and Electrical Properties

The aim of this paper is to provide a better understanding of photoluminescent porous silicon (PS) microstructure in relation to their electronic properties: absorption band edge shift1 and quantum confinement hypothesis1,2, dielectric constant evolution and electroluminescence characteristics.

Results concerning the p type PS microstructure characterization by X ray diffraction and electron microscopy are presented showing a noticeable decrease in crystallite size and surface area with decreasing substrate doping and increasing porosity.

The optical transmission of homogeneous free-standing PS layers of different porosities and substrate dopings is studied, showing no evidence of a direct energy gap in PS. On the contrary, a large blue shift of the optical absorption edge, taking into account the total Si mass content in the PS film, is demonstrated. This shift is well correlated with the crystallite size variations with porosity and substrate doping and is attributed to a quantum confinement of electronic wavefunctions in the nanocrystallites.

On the other hand, ellipsometry measurements show the PS absorption to be little affected by the microcrystalline structure of the material in the 3.5–5 eV range, i.e. above the direct band gap of bulk Si. This indicates that, if confirmed, the quantum confinement strongly affects the PS joint density of states in the vicinity of the Si band edge and, as could be expected, to a much lesser degree near the edge of the confining potential.

Capacitance voltage measurements of thin PS layers allow the determination of the dielectric constant which is shown to decrease with increasing porosity. This behavior is in reasonable agreement with theε values deduced from the transmission experiments in the near infrared. Furthermore, it is shown that this dependence on porosity is well accounted for by the Bruggeman effective medium approximation.

Finally, recent results concerning visible light emission from solidstate porous silicon devices will be presented: I-V characteristics, electroluminescence intensity and dynamic, quantum efficiency and device ageing.

Theory of the Physical Properties of Si Nanocrystals

This paper reviews calculations concerning several aspects of silicon crystallites and their relevance for porous silicon. This begins with the optical properties of perfect crystallites: gap versus size, radiative recombination time, relative importance of phonon assisted transitions. A second part is devoted to the determination of the excitonic exchange splitting and of the Stokes shift which are found to bring a similar contribution (∼10 to 20 meV). The effect of surface defects like dangling bonds is then investigated with their contribution to the recombination time. The Auger non radiative recombination time is also calculated and found to be short (∼1 nsec). This is confirmed by some experiments on porous silicon which show a saturation effect of the photoluminescence under intense optical excitation or under cathodic polarization in aqueous solution, Auger recombination preventing the existence of more than one electron-hole pair per crystallite. Donor and acceptor impurities are studied in detail (screening of Coulomb potential, notion of ionization energy) with the conclusion that they are ionized. A final discussion shows the present level of understanding and identifies problems remaining to be solved.

Photoluminescence Excitation Spectroscopy Of Porous Silicon

We combine photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy and photoconductivity to extract information about the bandgap and particle size distribution of porous silicon. This allows us to specify the influence of size dispersion and to show that different methods to determine absorption probe different parts of the size distribution.

Degradation of Porous Si Layers Caused by Thermal Treatment

Porous Si Alms formed on different p-doped substrates are studied by Raman spectroscopy, photoluminescence, and spectroscopic ellipsometry. Due to a thermal treatment the morphology is changed. A reduction in the number of nanocrystals with diameters below 30Å is found. It is shown that the photoluminescence is caused by the formation of small nanocrystals and that the effect of amorphous Si as a basic mechanism can be ruled out. The strain which must be taken into account for the interpretation of the Raman spectra decreases with increasing heating temperature.

Role of Hydrogenated Surface in the Photoluminescence of Porous Silicon

Optical properties of hydrogenated silicon clusters are investigated by density functional pseudopotential calculation. Transitions between the band-edge orbitals are allowed, in contrast to the indirect gap in bulk silicon. The energy gaps of hydrogenated silicon particles of 15 to 30 Å in diameter are estimated to be 2.0 to 1.5 eV. When the cluster is dehydrogenated, localized states related to dangling bonds appear in the mid-gap, which decrease the photoluminescence intensity. These results agree with much experimental evidence and suggest that the photoluminescence of porous silicon is attributable to hydrogenated silicon particles.

Can Oxidation and Other Treatments Help Us Understand the Nature of Light-Emitting Porous Silicon?

Using a careful analysis of the properties of light-emitting porous silicon (LEpSi), we conclude that a version of the “smart” quantum confinement model which was first proposed by F. Koch et al [Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. 283, 197 (1993)] and allows for the existence of surface states and dangling bonds, is compatible with experimental results. Among the new results we present in support of this model, the most striking ones concern the strong infrared photoluminescence that dominates the room temperature cw spectrum after vacuum annealing above 600 K.

Behind the Quantum and Size Effects: Broken-Bond-Induced Local Strain and Skin-Depth Densified Quantum Trapping of Charge and Energy

Shrinking the size of a solid down to nanometer scale is indeed fascinating, which makes all the otherwise constant physical quantities to be tunable such as the Young’s modulus, dielectric constant, melting point, etc. The variation of size also generates novel properties that can hardly be seen in the bulk such as the conductor-insulator and nonmagnetic-magnetic transition of noble metals at the nanoscale. Although the physics of materials at the nanoscale has been extensively investigated, the laws governing the energetic and dynamic behavior of electrons at such a scale and their consequences on the tunable physical properties of nanostructures have not been well understood [C. Q. Sun, Prog Solid State Chem 35, 1-159 (2007); Prog Mater Sci 54, 179-307 (2009)]. The objective of the contribution is to update the recent progress in dealing with the coordination-resolved energetic and dynamic behavior of bonds in the low-dimensional systems with consideration of the joint effect of temperature and pressure. It is shown that the broken-bond-induced local strain and the associated charge and energy quantum trapping at the defect sites perturbs the atomic cohesive energy, electroaffinity, the Hamiltonian and the associated properties of entities ranging from point defects, surfaces, nanocavities and nanostructures. Application of the theories to observations has led to consistent understanding of the behavior of nanometer-sized materials and the interdependence of these entities as well as the means of determining the bond energy through the temperature-dependent measurements.

Significant enhancement of hole mobility in [110] silicon nanowires compared to electrons and bulk silicon

Utilizing sp3d5s* tight-binding band structure and wave functions for electrons and holes we show that acoustic phonon limited hole mobility in [110] grown silicon nanowires (SiNWs) is greater than electron mobility. The room temperature acoustically limited hole mobility for the SiNWs considered can be as high as 2500 cm2/V s, which is nearly three times larger than the bulk acoustically limited silicon hole mobility. It is also shown that the electron and hole mobility for [110] grown SiNWs exceed those of similar diameter [100] SiNWs, with nearly 2 orders of magnitude difference for hole mobility. Since small diameter SiNWs have been seen to grow primarily along the [110] direction, results strongly suggest that these SiNWs may be useful in future electronics. Our results are also relevant to recent experiments measuring SiNW mobility.

Optical characterization of porous silicon and crystalline silicon by the Kramers-Kronig method

The electronic structure of porous silicon (PS) has been characterized by optical reflectance spectra analyses. Using a Cary-500 spectrometer, the reflectance spectra of PS are measured in the photon energy range of 0.4-6 eV. The spectral responses of optical constants are calculated for PS and Si by Kramers-Kronig analysis. The analysis clarified strong evidence for widening and direct bandgaps for PS samples. Also, the optical constants of PS layers as a function of porosity have been studied. Our results indicate that PS retains some of the characteristic optical features of crystalline Si. However, in the visible region, PS shows that the imaginary part of the complex refractive index increases, and the real part decreases as porosity increases. This feature could be related to the surface roughness of PS and its role in surface absorption and scattering.

Tunable light emission from quantum-confined excitons in TiSi2-catalyzed silicon nanowires

Visible and near-infrared photoluminescence (PL) at room temperature is reported from Si nanowires (NWs) grown by chemical vapor deposition from TiSi2 catalyst sites. NWs grown with average diameter of 20 nm were etched and oxidized to thin and passivate the wires. The PL emission blue shifted continuously with decreasing nanowire diameter. Slowed oxidation was observed for small nanowire diameters and provides a high degree of control over the emission wavelength. Transmission electron microscopy, PL, and time-resolved PL data are fully consistent with quantum confinement of charge carriers in the Si nanowire core being the source of luminescence. These light emitting nanowires could find application in future CMOS-compatible photonic devices.

Electronic states and luminescence in higher fullerene/porous Si nanocrystal composites

Photoluminescence (PL) measurements have been performed on the nanocomposites of higher fullerene-coupled porous silicon (PS) nanocrystals. For the C70PS and C76(78)PS nanocomposites, the PL spectra show a pinning wavelength at approximately 565 nm and for the C84PS and C94PS nanosystems the pinning wavelength is at approximately 590 nm. The PL pinning property is closely related to the sorts of the coupled fullerenes. A band mixing model of direct and indirect gaps in a nanometer environment consisting of nc-Si core, SiO2 surface layer, and coupled fullerene has been proposed for calculation of electronic states. Good agreement is achieved between the experiments and theory.

Quantum confinement and electronic properties of silicon nanowires

We investigate the structural, electronic, and optical properties of hydrogen-passivated silicon nanowires along [110] and [111] directions with diameter d up to 4.2 nm from first principles. The size and orientation dependence of the band gap is investigated and the local-density gap is corrected with the GW approximation. Quantum confinement becomes significant for d<2.2 nm, where the dielectric function exhibits strong anisotropy and new low-energy absorption peaks start to appear in the imaginary part of the dielectric function for polarization along the wire axis.

Metallic single-walled silicon nanotubes

Atomistic computer-simulation evidences are presented for the possible existence of one-dimensional silicon nanostructures: the square, pentagonal, and hexagonal single-walled silicon nanotubes (SWSNTs). The local geometric structure of the SWSNTs differs from the local tetrahedral structure of cubic diamond silicon, although the coordination number of atoms of the SWSNTs is still fourfold. Ab initio calculations show that the SWSNTs are locally stable in vacuum and have zero band gap, suggesting that the SWSNTs are possibly metals rather than wide-gap semiconductors.

Control of thickness and orientation of solution-grown silicon nanowires

Bulk quantities of defect-free silicon (Si) nanowires with nearly uniform diameters ranging from 40 to 50 angstroms were grown to a length of several micrometers with a supercritical fluid solution-phase approach. Alkanethiol-coated gold nanocrystals (25 angstroms in diameter) were used as uniform seeds to direct one-dimensional Si crystallization in a solvent heated and pressurized above its critical point. The orientation of the Si nanowires produced with this method could be controlled with reaction pressure. Visible photoluminescence due to quantum confinement effects was observed, as were discrete optical transitions in the ultraviolet-visible absorbance spectra.