Effect of bromine adsorption on the charge transport in porous silicon-silicon structures

• DOI: 10.1007/s13391-012-2126-7
• Publication Date: 2013-05-20T00:50:53Z
• Authors: Igor B. Olenych; Liubomyr S. Monas...; Olena I. Aksiment...; Bogdan S. Sokolov...
• Keywords: 02 engineering and technology; 0210 nano-technology

We studied the electrophysical characteristics of porous silicon (PS) layers formed on single-crystalline silicon substrates with both n-type and p-types of conductivity under conditions of adsorption of bromine molecules. An increase in the conductivity of PS-p-Si nanostructures is observed with increasing bromine concentration. The adsorption of bromine is shown to give rise to ‘diode-like’ current-voltage characteristics of the PS formed on the silicon substrate with the electronic conductivity. This can be caused by inversion of the conductivity type occurring in nanocrystals of the porous layer. Spectral characteristics of photovoltage for our structures subjected to bromine adsorption have been studied in the range of 450 — 1100 nm. We suggest a possible mechanism for the influence of bromine adsorption on the electrical and photoelectrical properties of the PS-silicon structures.