Effects of selenium treatment on composition and photoluminescence properties of porous silicon

In this work, an ultrasonically enhanced anodic electrochemical etching is developed to fabricate light-emitting porous silicon material. Porous silicon layer is fabricated in n-type (1 0 0) oriented silicon using HF solution and treated in selenious acid to increase the photoluminescence intensity. It is found that the increase of photoluminescence intensity after selenious acid treatment is higher in the intact zones and lower in the detached zones of ultrasonic excitation. The photoluminescence appears as a non-monotonous function of time exposure of selenious acid treatment. Surface chemical composition analysis by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy shows formation of Si-Sex and Si-Sex-Oy on the surface of porous silicon treated with the selenious acid.