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MEDICAL PHYSICS IN <strong>THE</strong> BALTIC STATES 7 (2009)<br />

Proceedings of International Conference “Medical Physics 2009”<br />

8 - 10 October 2009, Kaunas, Lithuania<br />

INVESTIGATION <strong>OF</strong> POROUS SILICON IRRADIATED WITH X-RAY<br />

PHOTONS<br />

Skirmantė MOCKEVIČIENĖ*, Igoris PROSYČEVAS**, Vaida KAČIULYTĖ*, Rita PIKAITĖ*, Diana ADLIENĖ*<br />

*Kaunas University of Technology,<br />

**Institute of Physical Electronics, Kaunas University of Technology<br />

Abstract: Porous silicon structures produced using vapor phase chemical etching method and exposed to 15 MeV X-ray<br />

photons have been investigated. It was found that irradiation introduces some changes of the chemical bonding structure<br />

related to the hydrogen release during exposure and is responsible for the changes of the pore growth mechanism, which<br />

could be used formatting porous structures for radiation detectors.<br />

Keywords: porous silicon, X-ray irradiation, chemical bonding structure, pores<br />

1. Introduction<br />

Porous silicon structures are characterized through<br />

broad application spectrum, including technology and<br />

medicine due to their specific structure-related<br />

properties, simplicity and cheapness of their production<br />

[1]. One of the possible applications of porous silicon is<br />

flat panel radiation detectors. Porous silicon detectors<br />

with a large active interaction area are well known as a<br />

broad band and high sensitivity detectors.<br />

Properties of porous structures are dependent on the<br />

fabrication method and technological parameters.<br />

Modification of structures is possible via interaction of<br />

energetic particles with a target too. However to our<br />

knowledge, there is a lack of information concerning<br />

modification of porous Si due to its interaction with<br />

accelerated X-ray photons (medical energy range, 10-15<br />

MeV).<br />

2. Materials and methods<br />

Method of chemical vapor etching was used for the<br />

obtaining of porous structures. Si (111) samples with a<br />

surface area of 1cm 2 were placed into Teflon cell at a<br />

distance 0f 10 cm from the liquid surface of etching<br />

acids mixture. Mixture of HF and HNO3 acids of<br />

different concentration was used. The samples were<br />

fabricated varying concentrations of acids and etching<br />

time.<br />

Two groups of samples have been investigated:<br />

1.samples, which were produces varying HF and HNO3<br />

concentrations (1:1; 1:2; 1:6) in a mixture, but keeping<br />

the same etching time of 24 hours, and 2. samples,<br />

which were produced using the same concentration of<br />

acids in the mixture (HF:HNO3 - 4:1), but varying the<br />

time of etching (24 hr, 48 hr, 60 hr)<br />

121<br />

Fabricated samples were irradiated with high energy (15<br />

MeV) X-ray photons, which were generated in medical<br />

linear accelerator Clinac 2100C (VARIAN). Dose of<br />

2Gy was delivered to all investigated porous Si targets.<br />

Chemical bonding structure of the samples was<br />

investigated using FTIR spectrometer Nicolet 5700<br />

equipped with 10 Spec modality (10 Degree Specular<br />

Reflectance Accessory).<br />

Optical properties of the samples were estimated using<br />

laser ellipsometer Gaertner 117 (exciting wavelength<br />

632,8 nm) as well as optical interferometer [2]. Porosity<br />

of the samples was evaluated using Bruggeman‘s<br />

formula [3]:<br />

2 2 2<br />

( 1−n PS ) ⋅ ( nSi + 2⋅nPS)<br />

2 2<br />

3⋅nPS ⋅( 1−nSi<br />

)<br />

⎡ ⎤<br />

P = 1−⎢ ⎥⋅100%<br />

⎢⎣ ⎥⎦<br />

Where nSi is Si the refraction index and nPSi is the<br />

refraction index of porous silicon.<br />

Surface morphology was investigated using optical<br />

microscope MMU-3, supported wit digital camera<br />

Canon5.<br />

3. Results and Discussion<br />

Properties of porous silicone structure depend on the<br />

concentration of the etching acids and etching time<br />

(Table1). It was found that an increase of HNO3<br />

concentration in the mixture, when etching time is the<br />

same, leads to the formation of thinner porous layers,<br />

however the number of pores increases (Fig.1: a, b, c). It<br />

is possible to achieve pore growth if the time of etching<br />

increases (Fig.1: d, e, f).

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