Determination of Vickers microhardness on porous silicon surfaces

The Vickers microhardness values of two different sets of porous silicon layers were determined at applied load of 98 mN. The sets consisted of Boron-doped substrates anodized at diverse current densities for two different amounts of hydrofluoric acid (HF) in the etching solution. We found that the microhardness of the samples with lower content of HF at the anodization process showed higher values, whereas the Vickers parameter diminishes consistently for higher current densities. A possible explanation of this behavior is proposed.