A. Halimaoui, C. Oules, G. Bomchil, "Electroluminescence in the visible range during anodic oxidation of porous silicon films," Applied Physics Letters, 59:304, 1991.
A. Halimaoui (France-Telecom, CNET, Meylan, France): "Although crystalline silicon is the dominant material for microelectronics, it has been regarded as unsuitable for optical applications for more than 30 years. The main reason has been its inefficiency at emitting light under either electrical or optical excitation. The recent discovery that silicon, when made porous, is efficiently luminescent has generated much interest because of its potential application in the fabrication of light-emitting silicon devices integrated within the core of silicon technology.
"The strong photoluminescence of porous silicon in the visible range has been attributed to a quantum size effect in the nanocrystallites that constitute the porous silicon skeleton. However, there is still considerable debate on the origin of this luminescence.
"In this paper, we show that during anodic oxidation ...
