ABSTRACT
Systems with silicon nanocrystals revealing peculiarities in atomic and electronic structure are studied by means of techniques sensitive to physical and chemical states, local atomic surroundings, and electronic structures. These techniques include scanning and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, ultrasoft X-ray emission spectroscopy (USXES), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and X-ray absorption near-edge structure spectroscopy (XANES). The investigations of the electron energy structure and optical properties as well as the regularities of the changes of porous layer composition on the conditions of porous silicon formation seem to be actual. At the present time, there exist a number of models describing visible photoluminescence in porous silicon. Complex studies of aluminum–silicon composites have shown that silicon nanoparticles in the aluminum matrix are nanocrystals whose mean size depends on the amount of silicon contained in the aluminum matrix, and it does not change after etching of aluminum.
