Electrical Properties of Mesoporous Silicon: From a Surface Effect to Coulomb Blockade

Since the publication of the paper oV. Lehmann, F. Hofmann, F. Moeller, and U. Gruening, Thin Solid Films, 255, 2 (1995), a great deal of effort has been produced to understand the basic mechanisms ruling the electron transport in Si mesostructures and how these phenomena are affected by the external environment. After more than 10 years of studies on mesoporous silicon in interaction with gas molecules, the latest experimental evidences and physical insights have been revealed, such as gas sensitivity, chemisorption phenomena, coulomb blockade, and glassy dynamics at room temperature. But by reading that former paper, the feeling of an extraordinary comprehension and intuition of the physical mechanisms occurring in this fascinating material con- tinuously accompanied the reader. A review of these major results, starting from the first evidence of a strong interaction with nitrogen dioxide, to the in situ Fourier transform IR and electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy studies, and to the more recent electronic transport experiments on this material was reported, which follows Lehmann’s intuitions in his paper.