Application of Proton Irradiation in the Study of Accelerated Radiation Ageing in a GaAs Semiconductor

Proton irradiation experiments have been used as a surrogate for studying radiation effects in numerous materials for decades. The abundance and accessibility of proton accelerators make this approach convenient for conducting accelerated radiation ageing studies. However, developing new materials with improved radiation stability requires numerous model materials, test samples, and very effective utilization of the accelerator beam time. Therefore, the question of optimal beam current, or particle flux, is critical and needs to be adequately understood. In this work, we used 5 MeV protons to introduce displacement damage in gallium arsenide samples using a wide range of flux values. Positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy was used to quantitatively assess the concentration of radiation-induced survived vacancies. The results show that proton fluxes in range between 10¹¹ and 10¹² cm^-2.s^-1 lead to a similar concentration of monovacancies generated in the GaAs semiconductor material, while a further increase in the flux leads to a sharp drop in this concentration.