Structural, optical and electrical characterization of nanostructured porous silicon: Effect of current density.

In this work, an attempt has been made to fabricate porous silicon (PS) from p-type crystalline silicon (c-Si) wafers by using the electrochemical etching process at six different current densities (40, 60, 75, 100, 125 and 150mA/cm(2)) with constant time (30min). The influence of varying current density on morphological, structural, optical and electrical properties of PS samples were analyzed by using SEM, AFM, XRD, FT-IR, PL and electrical (I-V) techniques, respectively. Microstructural images clearly showed that the average pore diameter and thickness increase with increase current densities up to 100mA/cm(2) and decrease for 125mA/cm(2).