A new view of silicon electrochemistry

The salient features of the current burst model For the Si-electrolyte inte rface is presented in a short overview. In the current hurst model, charge transfer at the Si-electrolyte interface is localized in space and time and intrinsically stochastic; all phenomena encountered in Si electrochemistry then are manifestations of the nucleation probabilities for current bursts , which depend on the system parameter in an unambiguous way. One of the un ique features of the model is the existence of an internal time constant (e qual to the average duration of a current pulse) which ultimately is the re ason for the observed oscillations of the current in time and in space, the latter case describing pores. For pores, the intrinsic time constant is ex pressed as an intrinsic length scale which is determined by the interaction of current bursts within the same cycle, i.e. by the size of synchronized domains. The pore morphology is the result of the interaction of the intrin sic length scale with external length scales, e.g. the space charge region depth; smooth macropores are obtained when the relevant length scales are s imilar. The existence of an intrinsic time constant and length scale will b e demonstrated by resonance phenomena which were observed for the first tim e in pore growth.