Spontaneous Raman emission in porous silicon at 1.5 mu m and prospects for a Raman amplifier

In the last three years, the possibility of light generation and/or amplification in silicon, based on Raman emission, has achieved significant results. However, limitations inherent to the physics of silicon have also been pointed out. One possible option to overcome these limitations is to consider low dimensional silicon. In this paper, an approach based on Raman scattering in porous silicon is theoretically and experimentally investigated. We prove two significant advantages with respect to silicon: the broadening of the spontaneous Raman emission and the tuning of the Stokes shift. Finally, we discuss the prospect of a Raman amplifier in porous silicon.