LIGHT-EMITTING POROUS SILICON

Although porous silicon has been known for more than 35 years, only in 1990 was it recognized that porous silicon shows an increased bandgap and efficient room-temperature photoluminescence in the visible. This paper will give an overview of porous silicon research, with special emphasis on the formation mechanism of microporous silicon in terms of a depletion of holes in the porous region due to quantum confinement and the understanding of the origin of the visible luminescence. The status of research on electroluminescent and other devices based on porous silicon will be discussed, as well as results for other luminescent forms of nanocrystalline silicon.