Impact of Water Adsorption on Nonlinear Optical Properties of Functionalized Porous Silicon.

The porous silicon (PS) surface modification diagnostics due to functionalization and water adsorption/desorption processes were provided by the self-action effects of picosecond range pulsed laser radiation at 1064 nm. It was shown that the PS surface functionalization-oxide removal, alkylation, and oxidation-resulted in a refractive nonlinear optical (NLO) response sign turn to self-focusing (Δn>0) versus the self-defocusing (Δn<0) observed in the aged PS. The sensitivity of the proposed technique was revealed to water adsorption/desorption from the chemically oxidized PS interface.