Intense white luminescence in ZnTe embedded porous silicon

Porous silicon layers were embedded with ZnTe using the isothermal close space sublimation technique. The presence of ZnTe was demonstrated using cross-sectional energy dispersive spectroscopy maps. ZnTe embedded samples present intense room temperature photoluminescence along the whole visible range. We ascribe this PL to ZnTe nanocrystals of different sizes grown on the internal pore surface. Such crystals, with different orientations and sizes, were observed in transmission electron microscopy images, while transmission electron diffraction images of the same regions reveal ZnTe characteristic patterns.