The Effect of Lewis Base Chemisorption on the Luminscence of Porous Silicon
ABSTRACTWe report here studies on the effects of Lewis base addition on the observed luminescence of porous silicon generated non-anodically from a stain etch of <100> p-type wafers and whose surface morphology has been characterized by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Addition of dilute heptane solutions of alkyl amines such as n-butyl amine (C4H7NH2) results in dramatic quenching of the steady-state photoluminescence (PL) near 625 nm. The observed fractional changes in integrated PL intensity as a function of amine concentration have been fit to a simple equilibrium model demonstrating Langmuir-type behavior from which adduct formation constants have been calculated. These steady-state PL measurements are complemented by Fourier Transform Infrared (FT IR) spectroscopic measurements monitoring the effect of amine adsorption on the silicon hydride stretching modes [v(Si-Hx)] near 2100 cm-1. Based on these results, a physical model for the amine interactions with the porous silicon surface is presented.