HIGH-ENERGY PROTON AND ALPHA-RADIATION EFFECTS ON GAAS ALGAAS QUANTUM-WELL INFRARED PHOTODETECTORS/

Gallium arsenide quantum well infrared photodetectors (QWIPs) are idea lly suited for infrared imagery due to their detection capability over a wide infrared wavelength region and the feasibility of fabrication of monolithic two-dimensional arrays of such detectors. This paper rep orts on the effects of high energy proton and alpha particle radiation s on the performance of these devices. The particle energies ranged fr om 0.8 MeV to 10.0 MeV and the fluences used in this work ranged from 10(11) to 10(16) cm(-2). The dark current and spectral response of the se radiated devices were measured at different fluence levels. Using t he spectral response as a measure of device performance, it is conclud ed that the device performance decreases with fluence and the degradat ion due to alpha particles is greater than for protons of the same ene rgy. Further, the damage to device performance decreases with the incr ease in the energy of both types of these radiations. From prior work, it was expected that these devices would be sensitive to permanent ra diation damage. The extent of damage, however, could not be pre-judged due to the device complexity. These are the first reported measuremen ts of radiation hardness of QWIPs.