AbstractWe report the observation of strongly anisotropic scattering of laser light at oblique incidence on (100)-oriented porous silicon layers. We performed angle-resolved light scattering measurements and three concentric rings were observed. Modeling porous silicon by means of nanometric columnar air pores and an effective anisotropic uniaxial dielectric constant explains the observed phenomenon, and besides, the observation of the angle aperture of these rings allows a direct measurement of relative birefringence. We finally study the changes of optical anisotropy after different modifications of the structure.
