FORMATION OF SILICON NANOSTRUCTURED SURFACE BY SELECTIVE CHEMICAL ETCHING

Nanostructured surface of silicon wafers with low reflectivity was obtained in a two stage process by selective chemical etching initiated by metal nanoclusters. Surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) effect was observed on silicon substrates coated with silver nanoclusters at concentrations of test substance Rhodamine of similar to 10(-12) M. It was shown that the depth of the structured layer is linearly dependent on the duration of the second stage etching up to etching time about 100 seconds. During the etching process, the formation rate of textured layer is twice faster in p-type silicon than in n-type silicon.