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Article: Light, chemicals modify silicon's glow.
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- February 15, 1992
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1992 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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With the first reports of silicon luminescence not yet two years old, scientists have scrambled to modify and harness this property to make faster computers and new optoelectronic devices (SN: 12/14/91, p. 399). Now chemists have discovered another way to exploit silicon's glow, while physicists and engineers report progress in controlling and understanding this property.
Light or electricity will make porous silicon emit light. But the addition of organic compounds to the surface of this silicon, made porous by the acid-etching, will temporarily change or stop that luminescence, says Michael J. Sailor, a chemist at the University of California, San Diego. ...