Neutron radiation effects were studied in undoped n-GaN films grown by epitaxial lateral overgrowth (ELOG). The irradiation leads to carrier removal and introduces deep electron traps with activation energy 0.8 eV and 1 eV. After the application of doses exceeding 1017 cm−2, the material becomes semi-insulating n-type, with the Fermi level pinned near the level of the deeper electron trap. These features are similar to those previously observed for neutron irradiated undoped n-GaN prepared by standard metal–organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). However, the average carrier removal rate and the deep center introduction rate in ELOG samples is about five-times lower than in MOCVD samples. Studies of electron beam induced current (EBIC) show that the changes in the concentration of charged centers are a minimum in the low-dislocation-density laterally overgrown regions and radiation-induced damage propagates inside these laterally overgrown areas from their boundary with the high-dislocation-density GaN in the windows of the ELOG mask.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The work at the Institute of Rare Metals (IRM) was supported in part by a grant from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR grant # 05-02-08015) and ICTS (grant # 3029). The work at the University of Florida (UF) was partially supported by NSF DMR-040010.
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Polyakov, A.Y., Smirnov, N.B., Govorkov, A.V. et al. Neutron Radiation Effects in Epitaxially Laterally Overgrown GaN Films. J. Electron. Mater. 36, 1320–1325 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-007-0203-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-007-0203-8