Silicon's position as the semiconductor of choice in micro/nanoelectronics hinges on its ability to shift to new design paradigms such as opto-electronics. Strategies to produce silicon-based light emitters remain limited, however, relying either on quantum confinement effects or optically-active dopants. We are actively studying the effects of incorporating optically-active Erbium centers into discrete crystalline Si nanocrystals. Such nanocrystals have been prepared via the pyrolysis of disilanein the presence of a suitable Er source. Two rather different types of doped materials have been synthesized to date: one involving a random distribution of erbium centers throughout the nanocrystal; the other forces erbium into a location preferentially-enriched near the surface. This work entails the structural characterization of such materials and their photophysical properties, including spectroscopic measurements under the conditions of high pressure.
In this work several different approaches designed to produce an opto-electronic chemical sensor based on light-emitting porous Si are described, all of which entail modification of the as-formed porous Si surface in order to alter device characteristics. The issue of selectivity and sensitivity of a given porous Si sensor can be modified by coating the porous Si surface with 'basket'-shaped molecules known as calixarenes; the ability of such a structure to detect copper ions and organonitrogen compounds is reported. Surface modification of porous Si through etching and deposition of conducting polymers in order to alter Si light emission color and intensity is also discussed. The fabrication of porous Si- based waveguides on Si and the impact of surface modification with erbium ions are also described.
Conference Committee Involvement (3)
Frontiers in Pathogen Detection: From Nanosensors to Systems
23 January 2010 | San Francisco, California, United States
Frontiers in Pathogen Detection: From Nanosensors to Systems
24 January 2009 | San Jose, California, United States
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.