Photoluminescence study of gallium arsenide irradiated with 15 MeV alpha particles

Gallium arsenide wafers were irradiated at room temperature with 15 MeV alp ha particles and fluences in the range 10(10) to 10(14) alpha/cm(2). This e xperiment extends the previous investigation of the same samples irradiated by 2.5, 5.0, and 10 MeV to 15 MeV, at which energy nuclear transmutations occur. and were observed via gamma ray analysis but no definitive effects o f transmutations on photoluminescence measurements were observed. The gallium vacancy introduction rate b(V-Ga) and silicon at the arsenic si te introduction rate b(Si-As) due to 15 MeV alpha particles were measured b y low temperature photoluminescence spectroscopy and found to be (2.3 +/- 0 .8) x 10(3) and (1.5 +/- 0.3) x 10(3) cm(-1) respectively. The theoretical vacancy introduction rate, as calculated by taking into account only primar y interactions, is (1.07 +/- 0.02) x 10(3) cm(-1).