Microscopic model for the dielectric function of porous silicon

Micro and nano-structures have opened a new area in materials research since they present interesting phenomena such as efficient luminescence and localization of carriers. An important example of these new materials is porous silicon (PS). It is considered that the quantum confinement is an essential cause of the opto-electronic properties of PS [1], thus microscopic analysis should be performed. We have developed a supercell model to study PS with a tight-binding Hamiltonian, where an sp³s^* basis set is used. In an otherwise perfect silicon structure empty columns of atoms are produced and passivated with hydrogen atoms [2]. In this work we calculate the dielectric function and compare it against experimental data for bulk c-Si, ultrathin c-Si films and PS. We discuss the importance of considering the relaxation of the electron wavevector (k) conservation in order to include disorder effects in PS.