Multiparametric porous silicon sensors

We investigated the possibility of using several sensing parameters from porous silicon in order to improve gas selectivity. By fabricating porous silicon optical microcavities, three independent quantities can be measured, i. e. the electrical conductance, the photoluminescence intensity, and the wavelength of the optical resonance. We monitored the change of these three parameters as a function of NO2 (0.5-5 ppm), ethanol (300-15000 ppm) and relative humidity (0-100%). Preliminary results confirm that the examined species affect the parameters in a different way, both as a relative change and as dynamic.