Nuclear microprobe investigation of the effects of ionization and displacement damage in vertical, high voltage GaN diodes

Radiation responses of high-voltage, vertical gallium-nitride (GaN) diodes were investigated using Sandia National Laboratories' nuclear microprobe. Effects of the ionization and the displacement damage were studied using various ion beams. We found that the devices show avalanche effect for heavy ions operated under bias well below the breakdown voltage. The displacement damage experiments showed a surprising effect for moderate damage: the charge collection efficiency demonstrated an increase instead of a decrease for higher bias voltages.