Effects of high-energy proton and electron irradiation on GaN Schottky diode

Abstract

We performed high-energy proton and electron irradiation on a GaN Schottky diode and investigated the effects on its electrical properties. No significant changes in the dark current or breakdown voltage of the diode were observed for fluences up to ∼1014protons/cm2. The currents increased by a factor of ∼103 at a fluence of ∼1015protons/cm2. The currents also fluctuated unstably at these fluences but this unstable behavior was not observed after a few months. Intrinsic defects may have been induced by particle irradiation and some of them annealed through a relaxation process. Under electron irradiation, the dark currents did not show a notable increase even with the fluence of ∼1016electrons/cm2.