Fabrication of Black Silicon With Thermostable Infrared Absorption by Femtosecond Laser

Annealing-insensitive black silicon with high absorption below the silicon bandgap has been achieved by femtosecond laser direct writing. Spike microstructures with sizes ranging from 4 to 25 μm are formed on the surface layer of silicon substrate, and a large amount of phosphorous impurities (10
²¹
cm
^-3
) is doped during the resolidification process. The infrared absorption of phosphorus-doped black silicon decreases slightly with both the annealing temperature and duration. Excitingly, the largest decrease is less than 10% at 2 μm (annealing 240 min at 873K). This thermostable infrared absorption is related to free carrier absorption. After laser irradiation, the phosphorus-doped layer maintains a relatively high crystallinity that can be improved further during thermal annealing. The density of the electrically activated impurities is approximately 10
¹⁹
cm
^-3
.