High energy proton and alpha radiation effects on GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well infrared photodetectors
- Defence Research Establishment Ottawa, Ontario (Canada)
- National Research Council, Ottawa, Ontario (Canada). Inst. of Microstructural Sciences
Gallium arsenide quantum well infrared photodetectors (QWIPs) are ideally suited for infrared imagery due to their detection capability over a wide infrared wavelength region and the feasibility of fabrication of monolithic two-dimensional arrays of such detectors. This paper reports on the effects of high energy proton and alpha particle radiations on the performance of these devices. The particle energies ranged from 0.8 MeV to 10.0 MeV and the fluences used in this work ranged from 10{sup 11} to 10{sup 16}cm{sup {minus}2}. The dark current and spectral response of these radiated devices were measured at different fluence levels. Using the spectral response as a measure of device performance, it is concluded that the device performance decreases with fluence and the degradation due to alpha particles is greater than for protons of the same energy. Further, the damage to device performance decreases with the increase in the energy of both types of these radiations. From prior work, it was expected that these devices would be sensitive to permanent radiation damage. The extent of damage, however, could not be pre-judged due to the device complexity. These are the first reported measurements of radiation hardness of QWIPs.
- OSTI ID:
- 445472
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-960773-; ISSN 0018-9499; TRN: 97:005157
- Journal Information:
- IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, Vol. 43, Issue 6Pt1; Conference: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers/Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects conference (NSREC `96), Indian Wells, CA (United States), 15-19 Jul 1996; Other Information: PBD: Dec 1996
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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