Introduction: The addition of nitrogen atoms into gallium-arsenide (GaAs) leads to a remarkable band-gap reduction, which originates predominantly from a downward of the conduction band edge. Due to this circumstance, GaNAs as well as other III-V-N alloys are strong candidates for various applications in semiconductor electronics, such as solar cells and GaAs-based telecommunication laser diodes [1]. The scientific literature suggests that the Irradiation of GaAs samples with high-energy radiation can leads to production of lattice defects in the form of vacancies, defect clusters and dislocations. Thus in this work it was investigated the effect of gamma radiation (γ-ray) on GaAs samples prepared with different concentrations of Nitrogen. The results shown that the number of defects induced in the sample can be monitored, it indicates that this system can be possibly used as a material for the development of sensors devices to γ-ray.

Experimental: The GaAs samples used in this study were grown by different Nitrogen concentrations of 0.2%, 0.4%, 0.8% and 1.2% [2]. These samples were irradiated with a gammacell Cobalt Irradiator (dose rate of 5.143 KGy/hour) with various doses (up to 50 kGy). The effects of γ-ray were studied by deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) and Laplace DLTS [3]. 

Results and Discussion: GaAs with different Nitrogen concentrations were subjected to ⁶⁰Co γ-ray irradiation and the effects of γ-ray irradiation have been studied in this work by DLTS. DLTS is a powerful tool to study these effects, which  induce to the formation of energy levels within the band gap which can act as trapping and recombination centers for carriers. The DLTS measurements on gamma irradiated sample found that with small Nitrogen contents (0.2% and 0.8%) most of defects are compensated. However irradiation did not compensate defects with higher Nitrogen concentration. If the defects induced by γ-ray can be monitored by electrical / electronic measurements techniques this system could be used as a semiconductor sensor device for gamma radiation.

References:

[1] M. Henini, Dilute Nitride Semiconductors (Elsevier Ltd., Oxford, 2005) and references therein.

[2] R.Kudrawiec, et al. (2012) Appl. Phys. Lett., 101, 082109

• Legal notice:
  

  Copyright (c) Pielaszek Research, all rights reserved.
  The above materials, including auxiliary resources, are subject to Publisher's copyright and the Author(s) intellectual rights. Without limiting Author(s) rights under respective Copyright Transfer Agreement, no part of the above documents may be reproduced without the express written permission of Pielaszek Research, the Publisher. Express permission from the Author(s) is required to use the above materials for academic purposes, such as lectures or scientific presentations.
  In every case, proper references including Author(s) name(s) and URL of this webpage: https://science24.com/paper/29767 must be provided.

1. Optical and Morphological Properties of Self-Assembled Quantum Dots Grown on Novel Index Surfaces