Effects of high-energy proton and electron irradiation on GaN Schottky diode

We performed high-energy proton and electron irradiation on a GaN Schottky diode and investigated the effects on its electrical properties. No significant changes in the dark current or breakdown voltage of the diode were observed for fluences up to ∼ 10 14 protons / cm 2 . The currents increased by a factor of ∼ 10 3 at a fluence of ∼ 10 15 protons / cm 2 . The currents also fluctuated unstably at these fluences but this unstable behavior was not observed after a few months. Intrinsic defects may have been induced by particle irradiation and some of them annealed through a relaxation process. Under electron irradiation, the dark currents did not show a notable increase even with the fluence of ∼ 10 16 electrons / cm 2 .