Spectroscopy for the Analysis of Nanoporous Silicon Gas and Humidity Sensors

In this work, a Raman spectroscopic study of nanoporous silicon sensor samples demonstrated its use as a method of gauging the sensor potential via quantitative data it provides on the sensor nanostructure dimensions. This special property of the Raman spectroscopy technique also showed its potential to determine mechanical stability of the samples over 3 months. This work also shows that the Raman spectroscopy technique is sensitive to step changes in relative humidity in all the sensor samples via its measurement of the strain-free crystalline silicon (c-Si) Raman peak. Since the Raman technique is non-destructive and senses remotely on the fragile nanoporous sensor samples it will be the ideal replacement of the presently used electrical capacitance techniques as the primary determination of relative humidity.