Proton degradation of light-emitting diodes

Abstract

Proton degradation is investigated for several types of light-emitting diodes with wavelengths in the near infrared region. Several basic light-emitting diode (LED) technologies are compared, including homojunction and double-heterojunction devices. Homojunction LEDs fabricated with amphoteric dopants are far more sensitive to displacement damage than double-heterojunction LEDs, and are strongly affected by injection-enhanced annealing. Unit-to-unit variability remains an important issue for all LED technologies. For technologies, degradation of the forward voltage characteristics appears to be more significant than degradation of light output.