Ionization and displacement damage irradiation studies of quantum devices: resonant tunneling diodes and two-dimensional electron gas transistors

The radiation tolerance of two quantum devices, InP-based resonant tunneling diodes (RTD) and GaAs based two-dimensional electron gas transistors (2-DEGT), was investigated with ionizing and displacement damage radiation. The RTDs were subject to a maximum total gamma dose of 1 Mrad(InP), 55 MeV protons to a fluence of 3.5/spl times/10/sup 11/ cm/sup -2/, high energy neutrons to a fluence of 5/spl times/10/sup 10/ cm/sup -2/ and heavy ions with a maximum LET (InP) of 23.6 MeV-cm/sup -2//mg to a fluence of 1/spl times/10/sup 7/ cm/sup -2/. Using the peak-to-valley current ratios as the figure of merit, no radiation effects were detected on the RTDs measured under these circumstances. The 2-DEGTs were irradiated to a total gamma dose of 50 krad(GaAs) and 55 MeV protons to a fluence of 5/spl times/10/sup 10/ cm/sup -2/. Under gamma irradiation, a reduction in transconductance was observed, while the proton irradiated devices show an enhancement in the transconductance. The magnitude of these effects was proportional to gamma dose and proton fluence respectively. The effects are transient. For the gamma exposure, the tested 2-DEGTs almost completely recovered their pre-radiation performance. However, the proton-irradiated devices only recovered about half-way to their pre-irradiated characteristics. The transient times were on order of hours and may indicate annealing effects.