Determination of size and bandgap distributions of Si nanoparticles from photoluminescence excitation and emission spectra in n-type stain etched porous silicon

The photoluminescence excitation and emission spectra of n-type stain etched porous silicon layers were investigated. From these spectra the average values of optical bandgap and photoluminescence peak position were determined. Based on these experimental data, the photoluminescence emission spectra of porous silicon were analyzed by the phenomenological theory and the fitting parameters of the theory were defined. The size and bandgap distributions of silicon nanoparticles were determined and their mean values were calculated. It was found that the investigated PS samples are the ensemble of nanoparticles with size between 1.5 nm and 2.8 nm and a bandgap from 2 eV to 3.2 eV distributed with different probabilities depending on the formation time of porous silicon. It is shown that with increasing formation time, the average size of nanocrystals is slightly increasing, while the average bandgap is slightly narrowing.