A large amount of work world-wide has been directed towards obtaining an understanding of the fundamental characteristics of porous Si. Much progress has been made following the demonstration in 1990 that highly porous material could emit very efficient visible photoluminescence at room temperature. Since that time, all features of the structural, optical and electronic properties of the material have been subjected to in-depth scrutiny. It is the purpose of the present review to survey the work which has been carried out and to detail the level of understanding which has been attained. The key importance of crystalline Si nanostructures in determining the behaviour of porous Si is highlighted. The fabrication of solid-state electroluminescent devices is a prominent goal of many studies and the impressive progress in this area is described.

The structural and luminescence properties of porous silicon

Atomic layer deposition(ALD), a chemical vapor deposition technique based on sequential self-terminating gas–solid reactions, has for about four decades been applied for manufacturing conformal inorganic material layers with thickness down to the nanometer range. Despite the numerous successful applications of material growth by ALD, many physicochemical processes that control ALD growth are not yet sufficiently understood. To increase understanding of ALD processes, overviews are needed not only of the existing ALD processes and their applications, but also of the knowledge of the surface chemistry of specific ALD processes. This work aims to start the overviews on specific ALD processes by reviewing the experimental information available on the surface chemistry of the trimethylaluminum/water process. This process is generally known as a rather ideal ALD process, and plenty of information is available on its surface chemistry. This in-depth summary of the surface chemistry of one representative ALD process aims also to provide a view on the current status of understanding the surface chemistry of ALD, in general. The review starts by describing the basic characteristics of ALD, discussing the history of ALD—including the question who made the first ALD experiments—and giving an overview of the two-reactant ALD processes investigated to date. Second, the basic concepts related to the surface chemistry of ALD are described from a generic viewpoint applicable to all ALD processes based on compound reactants. This description includes physicochemical requirements for self-terminating reactions,reaction kinetics, typical chemisorption mechanisms, factors causing saturation, reasons for growth of less than a monolayer per cycle, effect of the temperature and number of cycles on the growth per cycle (GPC), and the growth mode. A comparison is made of three models available for estimating the sterically allowed value of GPC in ALD. Third, the experimental information on the surface chemistry in the trimethylaluminum/water ALD process are reviewed using the concepts developed in the second part of this review. The results are reviewed critically, with an aim to combine the information obtained in different types of investigations, such as growth experiments on flat substrates and reaction chemistry investigation on high-surface-area materials. Although the surface chemistry of the trimethylaluminum/water ALD process is rather well understood, systematic investigations of the reaction kinetics and the growth mode on different substrates are still missing. The last part of the review is devoted to discussing issues which may hamper surface chemistry investigations of ALD, such as problematic historical assumptions, nonstandard terminology, and the effect of experimental conditions on the surface chemistry of ALD. I hope that this review can help the newcomer get acquainted with the exciting and challenging field of surface chemistry of ALD and can serve as a useful guide for the specialist towards the fifth decade of ALD research.

Surface chemistry of atomic layer deposition: A case study for the trimethylaluminum/water process

http://nathan.instras.com/documentDB/paper-69.pdf

Porous silicon: a quantum sponge structure for silicon based optoelectronics

Recent developments in rare-earth doped materials for optoelectronics

Porous silicon in drug delivery devices and materials

The authors report an all solid state, VLSI compatible, electroluminescent device based on porous silicon with an external quantum efficiency greater than 0.1% under CW operation. The emission, which is broadband and peaks at 600 nm, is detected above a low threshold current density and voltage of 0.01 Am-2 and 2.3 V, respectively.

Electroluminescent porous silicon device with an external quantum efficiency greater than 0.1% under CW operation

On the origin of blue luminescence arising from atmospheric impregnation of oxidized porous silicon

Calcium phosphate nucleation on porous silicon: factors influencing kinetics in acellular simulated body fluids

We have studied the temporal variation of the visible photoluminescence from rapid thermally oxidized porous silicon prepared from n+ substrates. In contrast to the red (slow band) emission, which is observable immediately after high‐temperature oxidation, the blue (fast band) emission is shown to become prevalent only after samples are stored in ambient air. The intensity of the blue emission increases with progressive aging, the magnitude of the increase being dependent on the temperature at which the material is oxidized. Thermal treatment of aged rapid thermally oxidized material can reduce and even quench the blue photoluminescence. Quenching is reversible in that the photoluminescence re‐appears after further aging at room temperature.

A. J. Simons

Papers

Electroluminescent porous silicon device with an external quantum efficiency greater than 0.1% under CW operation

On the origin of blue luminescence arising from atmospheric impregnation of oxidized porous silicon

Calcium phosphate nucleation on porous silicon: factors influencing kinetics in acellular simulated body fluids

Blue photoluminescence from rapid thermally oxidized porous silicon following storage in ambient air

The electrical properties of porous silicon produced from n+ silicon substrates