There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.

Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

I and i

The synthesis of massive arrays of monodispersed carbon nanotubes that are self-oriented on patterned porous silicon and plain silicon substrates is reported. The approach involves chemical vapor deposition, catalytic particle size control by substrate design, nanotube positioning by patterning, and nanotube self-assembly for orientation. The mechanisms of nanotube growth and self-orientation are elucidated. The well-ordered nanotubes can be used as electron field emission arrays. Scaling up of the synthesis process should be entirely compatible with the existing semiconductor processes, and should allow the development of nanotube devices integrated into silicon technology.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/283/5401/512.full.pdf

Self-Oriented Regular Arrays of Carbon Nanotubes and Their Field Emission Properties

The term photonic crystals appears because of the analogy between electron waves in crystals and the light waves in artificial periodic dielectric structures. During the recent years the investigation of one-, two-and three-dimensional periodic structures has attracted a widespread attention of the world optics community because of great potentiality of such structures in advanced applied optical fields. The interest in periodic structures has been stimulated by the fast development of semiconductor technology that now allows the fabrication of artificial structures, whose period is comparable with the wavelength of light in the visible and infrared ranges.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/6354/16969/00781867.pdf

Photonic crystals

We demonstrate that a monolayer graphene membrane is impermeable to standard gases including helium. By applying a pressure difference across the membrane, we measure both the elastic constants and the mass of a single layer of graphene. This pressurized graphene membrane is the world's thinnest balloon and provides a unique separation barrier between 2 distinct regions that is only one atom thick.

/pdf/impermeable-atomic-membranes-from-graphene-sheets-xtis5huy2d.pdf

Impermeable atomic membranes from graphene sheets.

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

We have developed three classes of techniques to produce micron-size and submicron-size light emitting porous Si (LEPSi) patterns and to protect the rest of the wafer. In the 1st class, LEPSi lines down to 2 µm width have been made using a photoresist/silicon nitride trilayer mask, followed by anodization. PL mapping of the structures indicates that the protected regions have not been etched. Using electron beam lithography sub-0.5 micron porous Si lines have been generated. In the 2nd class, formation of porous Si is inhibited by amorphizing Si using ion implantation followed by anodization and annealing. The crystallinity and electrical properties of the implanted region have been fully characterized after annealing. Using focussed ion-beam implantation, LEPSi patterns of the order of 100 nm have been obtained. The 3rd class consists of enhancing the formation of porous Si by a low energy/low dose bombardment (ion-milling) with argon ions prior to anodization. Under appropriate conditions, we have observed a strong enhancement of the formation rate of LEPSi where bombardment took place, possibly due to the generation of a large number of defects on the wafer surface.

Micron-Size and Submicron-Size Light-Emitting Porous Silicon Structures

Transient photocurrent measurements are reported in an electroluminescent porous silicon diode. Electron drift mobilities are obtained from the data as a function of temperature. Electron transport is dispersive, with a typical dispersion parameter α α 0.5. The range of mobilities is 10-5 - 10-4 cm2Vs between 225 K amd 400 K. This temperature-dependence is much less than expected for multiple-trapping models for dispersion, and suggests that a fractal structure causes the dispersion and the small mobilities.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S1946427400334467

Electron time-of-flight measurements in porous silicon

A method for controlling one or more temperature dependent optical properties of a structure in accordance with embodiments of the present invention includes heating at least a portion of a photonic band-gap structure and oxidizing the portion of the photonic band-gap structure during the heating to alter at least one temperature dependent optical property of the stack.

Method for controlling one or more temperature dependent optical properties of a structure and a system and product thereof

We report the fabrication of nanocomposites by the infiltration of polymers into porous silicon. Polymers such as polyamide, polystyrene, PMMA, and PVC were chosen because they are commonly available and have been extensively studied. The pore-filling was accomplished by either diffusion of the polymer molecules into porous silicon or in-situ polymerization of the monomer. The Vickers hardness arid the thermal conductivity of the samples were measured. There was a difference in the nanocomposite characteristics depending on whether the samples were as-anodized or had been annealed in oxygen. By infiltrating polyamide into an as-anodized sample, a 42% increase in hardness and a 24% increase in thermal conductivity were observed at room temperature, without any degradation of luminescence.

Fabrication and Characterization of Light Emitting Porous Silicon and Polymer Nanocomposites

We have investigated several methods to form submicron-size porous silicon regions. Porous silicon can emit light from the violet to past 1.5 μm with high photoluminescence efficiency at room temperature. It is composed of a high density of nanometer-scale crystalline silicon wires or dots. To integrate light-emitting porous silicon (LEPSi) LEDs with conventional Si microelectronics, it is necessary to produce miniature LEPSi regions adjacent to fully protected crystalline silicon regions. These techniques can be divided into two groups. In the first group formation of LEPSi is prevented during electrochemistry. Using optical and electron beam lithography, and a trilayer process with silicon nitride or amorphization by ion-implantation, we have made LEPSi patterns as small as 100 nm. In the second group, the formation of LEPSi during electrochemistry is enhanced by ion-milling or reactive ion-etching which we have found to help the pore nucleation. We have used a variety of mapping techniques, such as photoluminescence, atomic force and electron beam microscopies, to characterize the sharpness of the interface between the porous silicon and crystalline silicon regions.

Philippe M. Fauchet

Papers

Micron-Size and Submicron-Size Light-Emitting Porous Silicon Structures

Electron time-of-flight measurements in porous silicon

Method for controlling one or more temperature dependent optical properties of a structure and a system and product thereof

Fabrication and Characterization of Light Emitting Porous Silicon and Polymer Nanocomposites

Manufacture of Submicron Light-Emitting Porous Silicon Areas for Miniature LEDs