Uniform and Nonuniform Nucleation of Pores during the Anodization of Si, Ge, and III-V Semiconductors

Morphology is one of the basic characteristics of porous layers. For electrochemically grown pores, morphology is strongly dependent on the starting phase of pore growth, the so-called nucleation phase. This paper addresses uniform and nonuniform nucleation of pores on the surface and consequently the development of pores into the bulk of the following semiconductor substrates: Si, Ge, and III-V compounds (GaAs, InP, and GaP). It was found that nonuniform nucleation can cause formation of domainlike porous structures in all investigated semiconductors. However, depending on the anisotropy of the substrate, these domains show significant differences between them. The particularities of each type of domains are discussed.

[1]  S. Morrison.  Electrochemistry at Semiconductor and Oxidized Metal Electrodes , 1980 .

[2]  Paul A. Kohl,et al.  Photoelectrochemical etching of semiconductors , 1998, IBM J. Res. Dev..

[3]  J. A. Liddle,et al.  Crystallographic aspects of pore formation in gallium arsenide and silicon , 1997 .

[4]  I. Adesida,et al.  Morphology and luminescence of porous GaN generated via Pt-assisted electroless etching , 2002 .

[5]  H. Arwin,et al.  Self-organization in porous 6H-SiC , 2000 .

[6]  H. Föll,et al.  Formation Mechanism and Properties of Electrochemically Etched Trenches in n‐Type Silicon , 1990 .

[7]  T. Takebe,et al.  Fundamental Selective Etching Characteristics of HF + H 2 O 2 + H 2 O Mixtures for GaAs , 1993 .

[8]  Y. Morishita,et al.  Magnetic-Field-Assisted Anodization of GaAs Substrates , 2001 .

[9]  Self-organized pore formation and open-loop control in semiconductor etching , 2003, cond-mat/0608513.

[10]  Volker Lehmann,et al.  Electrochemistry of Silicon , 2002 .

[11]  H. Föll,et al.  Crystal Orientation Dependence of Macropore Formation in n-Type Silicon Using Organic Electrolytes , 2000 .

[12]  H. Föll,et al.  Electrochemical pore etching in Ge , 2003 .

[13]  L. Canham.  Silicon quantum wire array fabrication by electrochemical and chemical dissolution of wafers , 1990 .

[14]  Ion Tiginyanu,et al.  Pores in III–V Semiconductors , 2003 .

[15]  Kurt Busch,et al.  Silicon‐Based Photonic Crystals , 2001 .

[16]  P. J. Holmes,et al.  The Electrochemistry of Semiconductors , 1962 .

[17]  H. Föll.  Properties of silicon-electrolyte junctions and their application to silicon characterization , 1991 .

[18]  Luminescence of GaN nanocolumns obtained by photon-assisted anodic etching , 2003 .

[19]  P. Notten,et al.  Etching of III-V semiconductors : an electrochemical approach , 1991 .

[20]  V. Lehmann.  The Physics of Macropore Formation in Low Doped n‐Type Silicon , 1993 .

[21]  H. Föll,et al.  Observation of crossing pores in anodically etched n-GaAs , 2001 .

[22]  Takashi Jimbo,et al.  Porous GaAs formed by a two-step anodization process , 1997 .

[23]  B. Erné,et al.  Morphology and Strongly Enhanced Photoresponse of GaP Electrodes Made Porous by Anodic Etching , 1996 .

[24]  Albert Birner,et al.  Structuring of Macroporous Silicon for Applications as Photonic Crystals , 2000 .

[25]  J. Buriak,et al.  Preparation and functionalization of hydride terminated porous germanium , 2000 .