Surface electronic structure of light-emitting porous polycrystalline silicon thin films

Abstract

Surface electronic structure of light-emitting porous polycrystalline silicon (PPS) is studied using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). We find that the PPS films with strong photoluminescence effect can only be observed in thin films with trace amounts of silicon nanoclusters and the luminescence can be enhanced remarkably with proper passivation of the PPS surface.