ABSTRACTWe report the first observation of the lateral photovoltaic effect in porous silicon. Contacts placed on either side of a porous silicon region develop a voltage up to several millivolts if the sample is asymmetrically illuminated. If the light spot is closer to one contact, the voltage will have one polarity; if it is closer to the other contact, the polarity will be opposite. In the case of n-type, the contact nearest the light spot is positive; for p-type, the contact nearest the light spot is negative In the region between the contacts, the photovoltage varies almost linearly with the position of the light spot, over a distance 4.5 cm across. The origin of our lateral photoeffect may be explained by the trapping of photoexcited carriers by a pair of dangling bond centers in porous silicon. In the case of p-type, the photogenerated electrons are trapped by the dangling bond states while holes diffuse away in the substrate. The situation for n-type is opposite; holes are trapped by the dangling bond states while electrons diffuse away in the substrate. This differs from the conventional lateral photoeffect, which arises under the nonuniform illumination of a junction between two layers of differing conductivities. Hamamatsu sells silicon-based position-sensitive detectors with a resolution down to 0.1 µm. The possibility of using this lateral photoeffect to characterize these dangling bond states in porous silicon as well as several possible device applications will be discussed.
Fabrication of Porous Silicon Based Humidity Sensing Elements on Paper