Unravelling the secrets of the resistance of GaN to strongly ionising radiation

GaN is a promising material for radiation-hard technologies, but the mechanisms behind its resistance to strongly ionizing radiation are unclear. This study uses swift heavy ions and atomistic simulations to show that a strong recrystallization effect is key to GaN's resistance. Simulations predict damage evolution, showing recrystallization significantly lowers damage levels, especially at high fluences. The simulations accurately reproduce experimental observations of point and extended defects, density gradients, and voids. This modeling scheme should improve the design and testing of future radiation-resistant GaN-based devices.

Miguel C. Sequeira, Jean-Gabriel Mattei, Henrique Vazquez, Flyura Djurabekova, Kai Nordlund, Isabelle Monnet, Pablo Mota-Santiago, Patrick Kluth, Clara Grygiel, Shuo Zhang, Eduardo Alves, Katharina Lorenz