Advancement of radiation effects research in photonic technologies: application to space platforms and systems

While the study of radiation effects in microelectronic devices has been ongoing for many decades, it was only with the first successful space demonstration (1984) of an active optical fiber system comprised of fiber waveguides, light emitting diodes and photodetectors that the radiation effects community increased focus on the effects of space environments on photonic technologies. The intent of this critical review of radiation effects research in photonics is to historically and briefly summarize an overview of the leading research achievements of the last decade. The review also brings to focus very recent and emerging research directions using new ion microbeam methodologies for performing highly accurate radiation effects investigations on photonic and microelectronic components and systems. The bulk of the review deals with recently reported radiation induced response phenomena in: LiNbO₃ integrated optic structures, AlGaAs vertical cavity surface emitting laser diodes, acousto optic Bragg cells, GaN light emitting diodes, and organic spatial light modulators.