Influence of short-term annealing on the conductivity of porous silicon and the transition resistivity of an aluminum-porous silicon contact

Measurements were made of the transition resistivities of an aluminum-porous silicon contact and the resistivity of the surface region of the porous material after short-term annealing in an inert medium at temperatures between 300 and 550 °C. It was shown that the parameters of the contacts are determined by the pore morphology, the annealing temperature, and the plasma-chemical etching process. For porous silicon formed on p-Si, annealing reduces the transition resistivities by several orders of magnitude. In this case, the resistivity of the surface region of porous silicon decreases sharply. The results are analyzed from the point of view of the passivating effect of hydrogen in the porous silicon. Pis’ma Zh. Tekh. Fiz. 24, 45–51 (March 26, 1998)