Feature

Coupled Microcavities in Light-Emitting Porous Silicon

P.A. Snow, E.K. Squire, and P.St.J. Russell, Optoelectronics Group, Dept. of Physics, Univ. of Bath, Bath, U.K.; L.T. Canham, A.J. Simons, and C.L. Reeves, DERA, Great Malvern, U.K.

Although porous silicon (p-Si) can be easily, rapidly, and cheaply produced in electrochemical cells without the need for lithographic or epitaxial techniques, the emitted light has an undesirably broad spectrum (FWHM ~150 nm) and long (microsecond) decay times.1 If the spectrum can be narrowed, the response time reduced, and the efficiency improved, p-Si light emitters are likely to rapidly find their way into advanced Si-based optoelectronic chips.