Porous surface statistical characterization via fluorescence correlation spectroscopy

Abstract : The characterization of the porosity or of the pore density is a very important issue for porous materials. We report on a new technique allowing a direct measure of the surface pore density. The number of pores on porous silicon substrates has been measured using fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, a technique that is generally applied in solution to study molecules diffusing through a small observation volume. This technique is used to measure the surface density of luminescent pores in a mesoscopic porous silicon layer.