Kinetics of photoluminescence of porous silicon studied by photo-luminescence excitation spectroscopy and time-resolved spectroscopy

Photoluminescence (PL) spectra and excitation spectra (PLE) (under steady-state conditions), time resolved spectra (PL-TRS) and decay curves of photoluminescence (PL-DC) in micro- and nanosecond range (under pulsed operation) at different temperatures (10 K-room) on anodically etched boron–doped silicon are presented. PLE shows that visible PL is excited by light from UV region. PL and PL-TRS exhibit multiband structure and can be decomposed as a sum of few Gaussians. PL-DCs have multiexponential shape. Relaxation times depend on wavelength of the observation. To explain our results we assumed a model in which the multibarrier structure is formed by larger Si crystallites or wires (quantum well) surrounded by Si crystallites with diameters in the nanometer range (barrier region). The visible photoluminescence originates from radiative recombination between discrete energy levels in a quantum well