Self-affinity study of nanostructured porous silicon–crystalline silicon interfaces

Self-affinity was used to analyze the roughness at the porous silicon (PS)–crystalline Si (cSi) interfaces fabricated under different conditions. Using the variable bandwidth method, the self-affinity behavior was, qualitatively and quantitatively, analyzed from the cross-section micrographs of the PS samples obtained by field emission scanning electron microscope. The results show that correlation length is related with the average pore width. Roughness exponent is found to be correlated with the interface roughness. In addition, similar experimental roughness exponents were obtained for several interfaces grown by different methods, indicating the intrinsic fractal nature of the PS–cSi interfaces. The results were confirmed through the self-affinity analysis done on the atomic force microscopy profiles.