ELECTRICALLY-INDUCED LIGHT-EMISSION AND NOVEL PHOTOCURRENT RESPONSE OF A POROUS SILICON DEVICE

An electrically induced visible light emitting porous silicon (PS) dev ice was fabricated by laterally anodizing an n-type single-crystal sil icon (Si) wafer. Al/PS Schottky junctions exhibited rectifying I-V cha racteristics with an ideality factor of 7. The intensity of current-in duced light emission increased with applied electrical current. Novel photocurrent spectra of the device under different reverse biases were measured at room temperature and reported for the first time, which s howed three peaks of light absorption pertinent to the quantized energ y levels of the PS. Interpretation is given based on the quantum confi nement model.