Investigation of opto-electronic properties on gradient-porosity porous silicon layer

Electrochemical etching with step-gradient current was applied to form gradient-porosity porous silicon (PS) layer on n-Si substrate and Al/gradient-porosity. PS/n-Si structure was fabricated to extract its opto-electronic properties using reflectivity, spectral response, and scanning electron microscopy. A conventional single-layer PS etched with constant-current was also compared. Compared to the single-layer PS, the absorption wavelength of gradient-porosity PS is blue-shifted due to a smaller quantum size, hence a wider band-gap. Such a wider band-gap leads to a larger barrier-height in Al/gradient-porosity PS than that in Al/single-layer PS one. More dangling bonds are found on the surface of gradient-porosity PS owing to inhomogeneous etching, thus a poor electronic property, though it has a lower broadband antireflection than single-layer PS.