GENERAL BRONSTED ACID BEHAVIOR OF POROUS SILICON - A MECHANISTIC EVALUATION OF PROTON-GATED QUENCHING OF PHOTOEMISSION FROM OXIDE-COATED POROUS SILICON
Mt. Kelly et al., GENERAL BRONSTED ACID BEHAVIOR OF POROUS SILICON - A MECHANISTIC EVALUATION OF PROTON-GATED QUENCHING OF PHOTOEMISSION FROM OXIDE-COATED POROUS SILICON, JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY B, 101(14), 1997, pp. 2702-2708
Photoinduced visible light emission from porous silicon can be reversi
bly quenched by a wide variety of chemical species. The growth of a th
in layer of oxide on the porous silicon surface disrupts the quenching
ability of most species, narrowing down the number of quenchers to in
clude primarily those which act as Bronsted bases. Electron paramagnet
ic resonance spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy, photoluminescence da
ta, and surface chemistry suggest a quenching mechanism which involves
the extraction of a nonspecifically attached proton in the oxide laye
r upon exposure to base. This proton is loosely affiliated with a surf
ace defect of the P-b type. This defect serves as a hole trap in the a
bsence of a proton providing a nonradiative relaxation pathway. Howeve
r, when a proton is present in the oxide layer, Coulombic interactions
force the hole trap into a state which falls below the bandgap, allow
ing for efficient radiative recombination of electron-hole pairs. The
electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy data also demonstrate tha
t there are at least two distinct mechanisms of luminescence quenching
of porous silicon.