Effect of Structural Characterization on Optical Properties of Porous Silicon Fabricated by Metal Assisted Chemical Etching

Abstract: Porous silicon is synthesized by two step silver (Ag)assisted chemical etching method. The structural characterization of porous silicon has been carried out by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). In XRD, two peaks were clearly observed at 69. 190 and 69.410 for silicon and Ag respectively and the intense peaks with preferred growth direction (400) suggesting the good crystalline quality of porous silicon. The optical properties were carried out by using UV-Visible Spectroscopy which reveals that the optical reflectance of porous silicon is decreased as compared to bulk silicon which is very much efficient for solar cell applications. Photoluminescence (PL)emission has been observed in porous silicon which is in evident with the results of FTIR analysis. These observations concludes that the fabricated structure of porous silicon acts as a potential candidate for improvisation of the solar cell efficiency and in the field of optoelectronic devices.

Keywords: Porous silicon, Photoluminescence, Ag assisted chemical etching, XRD,FTIR