Formation of porous silicon at elevated temperatures

The features of electrochemical formation process of porous silicon (PS) at the temperatures above the room temperature have been studied. It was found that besides electrochemical dissolution, chemical etching takes part in the formation process of PS even for concentrated HF electrolyte. The role of chemical etching increases with temperature causing an increase of the porosity and the crater depth. The temperature dependence of chemical etching rate has been established. Obtained results enable to conclude that OH− ions play a major role in the chemical etching. Electrochemical etching allows to fabricate PS with good surface quality at the temperatures at least below 65 °C provided that HF electrolyte is concentrated.