Formation and growth of porous silicon

Abstract

The conformal hullfinite diffusion length model (FDL) simulates pore formation and growth in silicon by launching particles from an isoconcentration profile. Several features of the aggregation patterns generated by this model resemble experimentally observed morphology of porous silicon. In this paper we consider silicon atom dissolution by a two particle aggregation algorithm. The probabilities of site occupation have been assigned based on the local electric field. The release probability of particles has been considered to be proportional to the electric field. The incorporation of these factors generates aggregation patterns which are similar to those generated by other similar models. We suggest that such modifications generate aggregation patterns that are representative of porous silicon morphology. (C) 1997 Acta Metallurgica Inc.