Radiation tolerance of GaN: the balance between radiation-stimulated defect annealing and defect stabilization by implanted atoms

Realization of radiation-hard electronic devices that are able to work in harsh environments requires deep understanding of the processes of defect formation/evolution occurring in semiconductors bombarded by energetic particles. In the present work we address such intriguing radiation phenomenon as high radiation tolerance of GaN and analyze structural disorder, employing advanced co-irradiation schemes where low and high energy implants with different ions have been used. Channeling analysis revealed that the interplay between radiation-stimulated defect annealing and defect stabilization by implanted atoms dominates defect formation in the crystal bulk. Furthermore, the balance between these two processes depends on implanted species. In particular, strong damage enhancement leading to the complete GaN bulk amorphization was observed for the samples pre-implanted with fluorine ions, whereas the co-irradiation of the samples pre-implanted with such elements as neon, phosphorus and argon leads to a decrease of the bulk damage.