It is experimentally shown, in porous silicon formation, that there is
an increase in dissolution rate at fluorine-covered sites of the sili
con surface due to the presence of excess electrons coming from the ox
idation of molecular hydrogen at hydrogen-covered sites. The increase
in dissolution rate in the presence of excess charge at the fluorine-c
overed sites is investigated theoretically by a semi-empirical Hartree
-Fock calculation which shows that this spatially variable dissolution
generates the porous silicon structure.