Effects of high-dose 40 MeV proton irradiation on the electroluminescent and electrical performance of InGaN light-emitting diodes

Rohit Khanna, K. K. Allums, C. R. Abernathy, S. J. Pearton, Jihyun Kim, F. Ren, R. Dwivedi, T. N. Fogarty, R. Wilkins

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

36 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

InGaN multi-quantum-well light-emitting diodes (LEDs) in the form of unpackaged die with emission wavelengths from 410 to 525 nm were irradiated with 40 MeV protons to doses of 5 × 10 9-5 × 10 10 cm -2. The highest dose is equivalent to more than 100 years in low-earth orbit. The projected range of these protons is >50 μm in GaN and thus they traverse the entire active region. The electroluminescent intensity from the LEDs decreased by only 15%-25% even for the highest doses and the reverse breakdown voltage increased by 1-2V from their control values of ∼21-29 V. The percentage change in breakdown voltage and electroluminescence intensity was independent of the initial emission wavelength over the range investigated, within experimental error. The GaN LEDs exhibit extremely good stability to these high-energy proton irradiations with no measurable change in contact resistance or contact morphology.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3131-3133
Number of pages3
JournalApplied Physics Letters
Volume85
Issue number15
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2004 Oct 11
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The work at UF is partially supported by AFOSR Grant under Grant No. F49620-03-1-0370, by the Army Research Office under Grant No. DAAD19-01-l-0603, the Army Research Laboratory, AFOSR (F49620-02-1-0366, G. Witt and F49620-03-1-0370), NSF(CTS-0301178, monitored by Dr. M. Burka and Dr. D. Senich), by NASA Kennedy Space Center Grant No. NAG 10-316 monitored by Daniel E. Fitch, and the National Science Foundation (DMR 0400416, Dr. L. Hess). The work at Prairie View A&M is supported by NASA Grant No. NCC9-114.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)

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