Publisher's Synopsis
Much progress has been made in the preparation of porous films; alternative methods such as laser ablation and spark erosion have been investigated leading to new materials showing quite good emission efficiencies. Progress has been made in the preparation of porous films; alternative methods such as laser ablation and spark erosion are investigated leading to new materials showing quite good emission efficiencies. Other reports have shown that it has also been possible to form porous films of very large porosities of 90% and more can now be obtained without damage by using the supercritical drying technique. This method is already known from the formation of highly porous aerogels. These and other new developments in the field of porous silicon are discussed in depth in this book.;A large number of contributions have also been devoted to the characterization of the material. New experimental techniques, such as acoustic microscopy, low-temperature photoconductivity, magnetic resonance or other optical experiments are applied. The use of IR and Raman spectroscopies and tunnelling microscopy is also increasing to control the surface chemistry, the structure of the porous layers and the changes which may result from various treatments. Several contributions have focused on the electrical and transport properties of porous silicon. Up until now these properties have not been widely studied, mostly because of the difficulty of obtaining reproducible electrical contacts on the porous layers. The results presented here open new questions on the current transport mechanism in relation to the material microsctructure and possible electroluminescence applications.;These proceedings confirm that although very important progress has been made since the discovery of luminescence, much knowledge still has to be acquired from this porous material.
