PNNL

Abstract

A monocrystalline In0.18Ga0.82N film of ~275 nm in thickness grown on a GaN/Al2O3 substrate was irradiated with 290 MeV 238U32+ ions to a fluence of 1.2E12 cm-2 at room temperature. The irradiated sample was characterized using helium ion microscopy (HIM), Rutherford backscattering spectrometry under ion-channeling conditions (RBS/C), and high-resolution x-ray diffraction (HRXRD). The irradiation leads to formation of ion tracks throughout the thin In0.18Ga0.82N film and the 3.0 µm thick GaN buffer layer. The mean diameter of the tracks in In0.18Ga0.82N is ~9 nm, as determined by HIM examination. Combination of the HIM and RBS/C data suggests that the material in the track is likely to be highly disordered or fully amorphized, in contrast to a crystalline structure within the ion track in GaN. Lattice relaxation in In0.18Ga0.82N and a distribution of d-spacing of the (0002) planes in GaN with lattice expansion are observed after irradiation.