Ion-luminescence properties of GaN films being developed for IPEM

Radiation effects microscopy (REM) for the next generation integrated circuits (ICs) will require GeV ions both to provide high ionization and to penetrate the thick overlayers in present day ICs. These ion beams can be provided by only a few cyclotrons in the world. Since it is extremely hard to focus these higher-energy ions, we have proposed the ion photon emission microscope (IPEM) that allows the determination of the ion hits by focusing the emitted photons to a position sensitive detector. The IPEM needs a thin luminescent foil that has high brightness, good spatial resolution and does not change the incident ion’s energy and direction significantly. Available organic-phosphor foils require a large thickness to produce enough photons, which results in poor spatial resolution. To solve this problem, we have developed thin, lightly doped n-type GaN films that are extremely bright. We have grown high quality GaN films on sapphire using metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), detached the films from the substrate using laser ablation, and made them self-supporting. The smallest foils have 1mm2 area and 1μm thickness. The optical properties, such as light yield, spectrum and decay times were measured and compared to those of conventional phosphors, by using both alpha particles from a radioactive source and 250keV ions from an implanter. We found that the GaN performance strongly depends on composition and doping levels. The conclusion is that 1–2μm GaN film of a 1mm2 area may become an ideal ion position detector.