Electron radiation effects on carrier relaxation in molecular beam and vapor deposition grown GaAs test structures

Abstract

We exposed a series of AlGaAs/GaAs double heterostructure test articles grown by molecular beam epitaxy and metalorganic chemical vapor deposition to electron radiation. The active regions of the test articles were doped p-type, n-type, or unintentionally. Above bandgap steady state and time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy were used to characterize radiation-induced changes in the band structure and carrier dynamics of the test articles. The effects of 1 MeV electron radiation on the low temperature steady state photoluminescence and room temperature carrier lifetime varied with dopant type and concentration. The doping dependence of the lifetime damage coefficient indicates that dopants can mitigate the impact of radiation-induced non-radiative carrier recombination processes.