Effects of 340 keV proton irradiation on InGaN/GaN blue light-emitting diodes

The effects of proton irradiation on optical and electrical performances of InGaN/GaN blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs) were investigated. The InGaN/GaN blue LEDs were irradiated with protons at a fixed energy of 340 keV and doses ranging from 5 × 1010 to 1 × 1014/cm2. Both current–voltage (I-V) and light output–current (L-I) characteristics of InGaN/GaN blue LEDs were gradually degraded as increasing the proton doses. The optical performances of LED were much more sensitive to the proton irradiation than that of electrical performances. The electroluminescence spectra and the light output performances before and after proton irradiations had similar trends in degradation. Then, the reverse recovery time before and after 1 × 1014/cm2 proton irradiation slightly decreased from 31.0 to 27.6 ns.