Positron annihilation spectroscopy applied to porous silicon films

A monoenergetic slow positron beam has been used for the first time to profile porous silicon films. High values of the Doppler-broadened line shape parameters are observed, which correspond to positron annihilation within the porous layers and these are attributed to the decay of para-positronium. After allowing for the reduced density of the porous film, fitted values of thickness were deduced which were in reasonable agreement with values obtained from ellipsometry measurements. Low values of the Doppler parameters observed for the two samples with the thinnest films are attributed to oxide residing at the interface of the porous and bulk silicon regions. Etching the samples in a solution of 48% hydrogen fluoride reduced the porous film thickness significantly, suggesting that a considerable amount of the film consists of SiO2. A four-component convolution analysis routine is used to analyze the individual 511 keV annihilation peaks, the result of which confirms the formation of positronium within the porous layer. Positron annihilation is shown to be a promising method for the nondestructive investigation of thin porous films.