Optics and Photonics Society of Iran

The metal-assisted chemical etching of silicon in an aqueous solution of hydrofluoric acid and hydrogen peroxide is established for the fabrication of porous silicon (PS). In this study, gold nanoparticle (Au) are considered as catalysts and the effect of different conditions on the structural and optical properties of the fabricated PSs is investigated. The morphology of fabricated nanostructure is characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). It is shown that the morphology of the fabricated silicon nanostructures remarkably depends upon the catalyst layer thickness, and the catalyst etching time directly affects the structural and optical properties of the synthesized PSs. The pore’s depth increase with etching time. Creating the pores in silicon caused the photoluminescence to create in the range of visible  light. The synthesized PSs can be considered as a promising candidate for the generation of nano-scale opto-electronic devices.