Characterization of Porous Silicon Based Composite Nanostructures by Means of Photoacoustic Technique

The paper presents the results of an experimental study of photoacoustic transformation in nanostructured composite systems “silicon nanowires + liquid”. The initial nanowires were grown by the metal-assisted chemical etching method of monocrystalline silicon plates with different Boron doping levels. The informative photoacoustic response was carried out by the photoacoustic cell with gas-microphone registration. The approach that allows estimating of thermal conductivity of silicon nanowire arrays with different morphology before and after incorporation of a liquid is presented. The evaluated results are in good agreement with the classical “critical frequency” method. Thus, the presented approach can be easily adopted for the study of other types of composite nanostructures.