Formation of porous layers via localized corrosion of semiconductors is a reliable method to produce nano-structured semiconducting materials. The formation process is assisted by strong fluctuations (noise) of the anodic potential or current applied to the corroding material. Electrical and optical characteristics of nanoparticles are also quit noisy. The noise is a result of heterogeneity of the electrochemical reactions involved into the formation of pores and pits, transient phenomena in the formed porous layers, their exchange by energy with environment, etc. Therefore, analyzing the noise would be useful to understand the nature of the formation processes and properties of nanoparticles.

Here we present the results of studying the formation of porous silicon and electrical properties of the formed porous layers with the help of so-called Flicker-Noise Spectroscopy (FNS), method allowing to quantify and analyze the information contained in noisy signals. The method is different from existing approaches in that it allows not only to represent the noisy signals but estract physically meaning information from them. It is shown that using the FNS approach one can extract useful information on the kinetics of the electrochemical and electrical processes.