Radiation-induced displacement damage in silicon carbide blue light-emitting diodes

The effect of electron irradiation on the minority carrier lifetime of silicon carbide (SiC) light-emitting diodes has been evaluated. Although the electron threshold energy for displacement damage is lower than that for GaAs by a factor of 2.5 because of the smaller mass of the carbon atom, at energies above 0.5 MeV the damage constant for SiC is more than three orders of magnitude lower than for GaAs, indicating greatly superior performance in most radiation environments. Preliminary annealing studies indicate significantly different recovery behaviour for damage by electrons of different energies