POROUS SILICON - A ROUTE TOWARDS A SI-BASED PHOTONICS

By partial anodic dissolution of Si, it is possible to form an efficie nt room-temperature luminescent material named porous silicon (p-Si). In this paper the properties of p-Si are reviewed with special emphasi s on the growth issue and on its application to light emitting diodes. The physical processes at the base of the luminescence are also discu ssed. It is suggested that the p-Si luminescence results from radiativ e recombination of excitons quantum confined in Si nano-crystals.