Mesoporous Germanium formed by bipolar electrochemical etching

Abstract The formation of mesoporous Ge layers with different morphologies by bipolar electrochemical etching is reported for the first time. A detailed analysis of the effect of anodic/cathodic pulse duration on the mesoporous Ge formation is performed. It is shown that together with the applied current density and anodization time this parameter has the most important influence on porous Ge morphology. Six different types of porous morphologies were identified with the nanopore diameter being in the range from 5 to 15 nm. Their crystalline nature has been confirmed by Raman spectroscopy. The diameters of the nanocrystallites of the porous Ge layers were extracted from Raman spectra by using the phonon-confinement model. Depending of the layer morphology their values varied between 4 and 10 nm. A conceptual analysis of several aspects of the formation mechanisms of mesoporous Germanium based on the available information has allowed us to predict and create a new complex morphology.