The impact of annealing of proton irradiation-induced defects in n-type GaN devices has been systematically investigated using deep level transient and optical spectroscopies. Moderate temperature annealing (>200–250 °C) causes significant reduction in the concentration of nearly all irradiation-induced traps. While the decreased concentration of previously identified N and Ga vacancy related levels at EC − 0.13 eV, 0.16 eV, and 2.50 eV generally followed a first-order reaction model with activation energies matching theoretical values for NI and VGa diffusion, irradiation-induced traps at EC − 0.72 eV, 1.25 eV, and 3.28 eV all decrease in concentration in a gradual manner, suggesting a more complex reduction mechanism. Slight increases in concentration are observed for the N-vacancy related levels at EC − 0.20 eV and 0.25 eV, which may be due to the reconfiguration of other N-vacancy related defects. Finally, the observed reduction in concentrations of the states at EC − 1.25 and EC − 3.28 eV as a function of annealing temperature closely tracks the detailed recovery behavior of the background carrier concentration as a function of annealing temperature. As a result, it is suggested that these two levels are likely to be responsible for the underlying carrier compensation effect that causes the observation of carrier removal in proton-irradiated n-GaN.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.