Electrical defects introduced during high-temperature irradiation of GaN and AlGaN

It has previously been found that, for example, 2.0 MeV protons at room temperature introduces two main electron traps at introduction rates of 400 and 600 cm(-1), respectively and reduces the carrier density at a rate of 40 cm(-1) in gallium nitride (GaN). In this paper, we report on the behaviour of the ideality factor, barrier height and reverse leakage current of the Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) fabricated on GaN and aluminium gallium nitride as a function of temperature as well as incident proton fluence. We also report the introduction rates of defects and the removal rate of free carriers when bombarding the SBDs at 300degreesC and compare these observations with the results obtained for room temperature bombardment. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.