Displacement damage in GaAs structures

High-energy knock-on atoms produced by incident protons are much more important in determining the total nonionizing energy deposited in GaAs than in Si, due to the relative size of the Lindhard correction for partitioning the recoil energy. High-energy recoils are mainly produced by inelastic nuclear interactions between the incident protons and the target atoms. A review of previous calculations indicates that both the fast cascade and the evaporation phases of the elastic interaction contribute to the average energy of the recoiling ion. New calculations are presented for the energy dependence of the nonionizing energy deposited in GaAs as a result of inelastic interaction with protons over the energy range 10-1000 MeV. These calculations are combined with the previously determined contribution from elastic interactions to obtain the energy dependence of the total nonionizing energy deposited in GaAs by protons. The calculation is compared with both new and earlier experimental data for ion-implanted GaAs resistors irradiated with protons over the energy range 40-188 MeV, in order to form a basis whereby proton displacement effects in GaAs structures can be predicted. It is shown that results obtained for 10 MeV protons, for example, can be used to predict results to be expected at much higher energies.>