Energy dependence of proton damage in optical emitters

The energy dependence of proton displacement damage effects is investigated for light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and laser diodes. Injection-enhanced annealing occurs more rapidly when devices are irradiated with protons below 50 MeV compared with annealing from 200-MeV protons. A different interpretation of damage in amphoterically doped LEDs is used to show that the dependence of damage on energy is relatively flat for energies above 50 MeV, in contrast to older results in the literature that show a continued decrease in damage at higher energies.