Modeling the diffusion/absorption response of a nanopore coated microporous silicon interface

We outline a modeling study of an extrinsic semiconductor interface formed from the interaction of nanostructured metal oxide decorated porous silicon and used for sensing gas phase analytes. We consider simple conductometric sensors that operate at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. Nanostructured metal oxide deposition provides a matrix of responses to various analytes, facilitating the extraction of ambient gas concentrations from sensor responses. The sensors are simulated in four stages with an emphasis to the continual improvement of the modeling effort. Stage 1 focuses solely on the diffusion mechanics of an analyte gas into and out of a micro/nanoporous interface and the observed linear response at low concentrations. Stage 2 focuses on the non-linearity resulting primarily from the quenching of sensor response at higher concentrations and introduces an absorption response mechanism. Here, stage 3 demonstrates how the consideration of charge carrier density leads to the development of a new Fermi-distribution based response mechanism. Stage 4 establishes a combined absorption-Fermi-distribution response mechanism. (C) 2016 AIP Publishing LLC.