Swift heavy ion irradiation induced modification of current-voltage characteristics of heavily doped Au/n-GaAs Schottky diode

The modifications in current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of a Au/n-GaAs Schottky diode induced by 180 MeV ¹⁰⁷Ag¹⁴⁺ ion irradiation at a low temperature (80 K) have been studied. The irradiation fluence was varied from 5×10¹⁰ cm^-2 to 1×10¹³ cm^-2. The I-V characterization of the pristine and irradiated diodes was performed at 300 K and 80 K. The n-GaAs wafer used for fabricating the Schottky diode was heavily doped (n=1×10¹⁸ cm^-3) and hence the current transport across the metal-semiconductor junction was described by thermionic-field emission process. The variation in diode parameters like tunneling parameter E₀, ideality factor n and saturation current (I_s) has been studied as a function of irradiation fluence