Enhancement in electrical properties of Au/n-GaAs Schottky diodes exposed to 60Co gamma rays

The effect of γ-ray exposure on the electrical characteristics of Au/n-GaAs Schottky barrier diodes has been investigated using current–voltage and capacitance–voltage techniques. The results indicate that irradiation with a cumulative dose of 10 Mrad (Si) improves the electrical characteristics of the diode. The parameters like ideality factor, series resistance and reverse leakage current determined from the current–voltage data decreases, whereas the barrier height and rectification ratio increases upon irradiation. The effective barrier height deduced from the capacitance–voltage technique has also increased with irradiation. The irradiated diode shows a higher carrier concentration compared to the virgin diode. The observed overall improvement in the diode quality is attributed to the annealing effect of γ-rays.