Hydrofluoric acid

Abstract: A new etch composed of a dilute aqueous solution of an alkali dichromate and hydrofluoric acid, for suitably revealing dislocations and other lattice defects in (100) planes of silicon, is reported. The etch is fast (typically 5 min), brings out both lineage (low angle grain boundaries) and slip lines, and works over a wide range of resistivities for n‐ and p‐type material. The application of the etch is not restricted to (100) planes; dislocation etch pits are formed on all crystallographic orientations. The same etching characteristics were found with dilute aqueous solutions prepared from various chromium compounds and hydrofluoric acid.

Abstract: Magnetic relaxation times of hydrogen and fluorine in anhydrous hydrofluoric acid cannot be accounted for on the assumption of a pure dipole‐dipole interaction between the hydrogen and the fluorine nuclei in the same molecule. However, the introduction, in the Hamiltonian, of a scalar term AI·S resulting from the indirect electron‐coupled interaction between the two nuclei removes all the discrepancies between the calculated and observed decay times. Although the splitting due to this scalar term is smeared out by the rapid chemical exchange of the protons with the traces of water present in the acid, the nuclear Overhauser effect provides the extra parameter required to separate the dipole‐dipole interaction from the scalar interaction and to calculate separately the scalar splitting and the exchange rate of the protons. The value obtained for the splitting is A/h=615 cps.The same method has been applied to investigate the structure of the HF molecule in solutions. The experimental results can be explain...

Abstract: Silicon nanowire (SiNW)-based solar cells on glass substrates have been fabricated by wet electroless chemical etching (using silver nitrate and hydrofluoric acid) of 2.7 μm multicrystalline p+nn+ doped silicon layers thereby creating the nanowire structure. Low reflectance ( 90% at 500 nm) have been measured. The highest open-circuit voltage (Voc) and short-circuit current density (Jsc) for AM1.5 illumination were 450 mV and 40 mA/cm2, respectively at a maximum power conversion efficiency of 4.4%.

Abstract: The etching of silicate glasses in aqueous hydrofluoric acid solutions is applied in many technological fields. In this review most of the aspects of the wet chemical etching process of silicate glasses are discussed. The mechanism of the dissolution reaction is governed by the adsorption of the two reactive species: HF and HF 2 - and the catalytic action of H+ ions, resulting in the breakage of the siloxane bonds in the silicate network. The etch rate is determined by the composition of the etchant as well as by the glass, although the mechanism of dissolution is not influenced. In the second part of this review, diverse applications of etching glass objects in technology are described. Etching of SiO2 and doped SiO2 thin films, studied extensively for integrated circuit technology, is discussed separately.