The effect of the ZnO thickness layer on the porous silicon properties deposited by chemical vapor deposition

We report on the properties of porous silicon deposited by Electro-Chemical Etching (ECE) technique with ZnO nanoparticles layer grown on porous silicon (P-type) by Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD). X-ray diffraction study on the crystallographic structure revealed a beneficial impact of ZnO films on the structural properties of the porous silicon. Moreover, these properties enhanced when the ZnO layer thickness was increased. The morphological properties of ZnO/PSi were investigated based on Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) measurements. The results indicate an upgrading in the structural stability of PSi substrate with crystalline growth of ZnO thin film. It is also observed that the value of the roughness (RMS) increases when ZnO filme on PSi increases. All these results indicate that the interested ZnO shows a good and homogenous layer using (CVD) technique. Finally, it is evident that porous silicon substrate can open the door for improving the crystalline quality in hexagonal lattice of ZnO thin film, and this could be due to sponge-like structure of porous silicon.