Magnetic Filling of Microporous Silicon: An Interlink of Optical and Magnetic Behavior
Authors: Granitzer Petra , Rumpf Klemens , Reissner Michael , Michor Herwig 
Published: July 2021

In the frame of this work microporous silicon (mPSi) is filled with magnetic metals (Ni, Co) resulting in a composite system with specific magnetic properties. The results are compared with mesoporous silicon (PSi) loaded with Ni nanoparticles (NPs) of comparable size. The mPSi offers luminescence in the visible, whereat this behavior is due to the small structure size in the range of a few nanometers (2 – 5 nm) [1]. The morphology of mesoporous silicon shows straight pores with a diameter up to 50 nm.

The mPSi samples are fabricated by anodization of a moderately doped p-type silicon wafer in a 10 wt% hydrofluoric acid solution. The challenging metal filling of these pores is carried out under cathodic conditions by pulsed electrodeposition. As electrolytes aqueous NiSO4 and CoSO4 solutions are employed. The microporous silicon offers a branched morphology and thus also the deposited nanosized metal structures are interconnected. The structure size of the porous samples is estimated by photoluminescence measurements to 5 nm which also determines the size of the deposits. Mesoporous silicon is produced by anodization of a highly n-doped silicon wafer resulting in straight pores of about 50 nm in diameter [2]. The loading of these samples with Ni NPs is also performed by electrodeposition.

Magnetic filling of meso- and microporous silicon, respectively means a change in the morphology as well as in the structure size of the magnetic precipitations and both influence the magnetic behavior of the composite system drastically. In the case of mPSi also the luminescence is influenced in its intensity and wavelength by the magnetic filling. The magnetic properties are investigated with a Vibrating Sample Magnetometer (VSM) and a SQUID, respectively. A luminescence spectrometer is used to measure the intensity and the peak position of the photoluminescence spectrum. The structure is investigated by SEM and TEM.

Field dependent magnetization measurements show a distinct difference between Ni filled mPSi and PSi loaded with Ni NPs. Considering mPSi filled with Ni and Co a strong magnetic anisotropy between the two magnetization directions applying a magnetic field perpendicular and parallel to the surface, respectively is observed, whereas in the case of Co this behavior is even more pronounced. Figure 1 depicts the hysteresis of mPSi and mesoporous silicon filled with Ni. The coercivities do not vary in a broad range between Ni and Co samples but the saturation field differs drastically between the two materials. In contrast mesoporous silicon loaded with Ni NPs offers only a small magnetic anisotropy caused by weak magnetic interactions between the Ni deposits.

Since the microporous silicon offers photoluminescence the huge magnetic anisotropy is of interest for magneto-optical applications.

Figure 1: Comparison of field dependent magnetization of mPSi and mesoporous silicon filled with Ni.

[1] Handbook of Porous Silicon, Ed. L. Canham, Springer Int. Publishing, 2018.

[2] P. Granitzer, K. Rumpf, Semiconductor Science and Technology 31, 4004, 2016.

Figure 1