Analysis of LED degradation - Proton-bombarded GaAs

An analysis is given of the degradation of light-emitting, Zn-diffused GaAs diodes after proton bombardment. Use is made of a generally applicable method by which the external bulk quantum efficiency and the injection efficiency of an LED can be determined separately. Owing to the increase of non-radiative recombination being larger in the bulk than in the space-charge region, the injection efficiency at constant current first starts to increase and then decreases as a function of irradiation fluence. Furthermore, it is shown that the apparent bulk quantum efficiency decreases superlinearly with the irradiation fluence. This is consistent with the theory for a linear-graded pn junction and the assumption that the concentration of additional killer centres is directly proportional to the irradiation fluence.