Silicon nanoparticles characterization by Auger electron spectroscopy

The influence of a surface adsorbed layer on the of ratio of Si L23VV to Si KL23L23 intensities was taken into account in order to apply the method of silicon particle size evaluation to a realistic porous silicon surface with adsorbed impurities. It is shown that etching of the electrochemically prepared porous silicon in HF solution leads to more monotonic growth of the silicon particle size under movement from the porous silicon surface to an interface with a single crystal silicon. It is shown that Ti and Ni impurities on a porous silicon surface lead to a decrease in oxygen and carbon content in the porous silicon layer and an increase in the evaluated size of silicon particles in the porous silicon layer. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.