Thermal stability of ion-irradiated InGaAs with (sub-) picosecond carrier lifetime

Abstract

Pump-probe experiments have been used to measure the (sub-) picosecond carrier lifetimes in Au+- and proton-irradiated InGaAs samples, subsequently annealed at various temperatures. For both types of irradiation, the carrier lifetime increases with the annealing temperature. After 600 °C annealing, the defects are totally recovered in proton-irradiated samples, whereas they are still present in Au+-irradiated samples. The defect annealing kinetics observed in proton-irradiated samples is described well by a Frenkel pair recombination model, thereby indicating the dominance of isolated point defects. In contrast, the model is not adapted to describe the thermal behavior of Au+-irradiation-induced defects that are clusters of point defects as observed via transmission electronic microscopy. It is clearly shown that heavy-ion irradiated InGaAs exhibits a much higher thermal stability than proton-irradiated InGaAs.