Recovery of low temperature electron irradiation-induced damage in n-type gaas

Undoped n-type GaAa was irradiated near 5 and 77 °K with electrons having incident energies between 0.46 and 1.30 MeV. The recovery of the electrical resistivity and the Hall coefficient upon annealing from 4 to 520 °K was monitored. Changes which occurred upon annealing below 200 °K could be reversed by ionizing radiation. A small amount of irreversible ionization-induced recovery was observed after irradiation near 5 °K. Major irreversible recovery stages were centered near 235 (stage I), 280 (stage II) and 520 °K (stage III). Recovery in stage I and II obeyed first order kinetics. The activation energies of stages I and II were determined as 0.72 and 0.83 eV, respectively. The carrier concentration changes per unit irradiation dose corresponding to the three recovery stages differed in their energy dependence indicating that the defects which are removed in stage III have the lowest threshold energy. The carrier concentration changes per unit irradiation dose corresponding to stages I and III were higher for irradiation near 5 °K than for irradiation near 77 °K.