Properties of chemically etched porous polycrystalline silicon deposited by r.f. sputtering

After the discovery of the luminescence phenomena in porous crystalline Si at room temperature, there has been tremendous research in the area of porous effects in Si due to its potential in optoelectronics applications. Recently, it was reported that similar photoluminescence (PL) was observed in porous CVD and cast Si formed by electrochemical anodization. Studies of porous polycrystalline Si films are attractive because it may be applied in large area devices. In this paper, we shall report the properties of porous polycrystalline silicon formed by chemically etching r.f. sputtered silicon films after furnace crystallization.