Damage formation and annealing in InP due to swift heavy ions

Virgin and pre-damaged InP samples were irradiated at room temperature (RT) and at liquid nitrogen temperature (LNT) with different fluences of 140 MeV Kr, 390 MeV Xe and 600 MeV Au ions. The pre-damaging was performed with 600 keV Ge ions at LNT to obtain different damage levels. The samples were analysed by means of Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) in random and channelling geometry. A relatively weak damage accumulation in virgin InP and a very significant defect annealing in pre-damaged InP occurs due to 140 MeV Kr irradiation. The damaging of virgin InP with 390 MeV Xe and 600 MeV Au is much more efficient in comparison with that of 140 MeV Kr. Further, annealing of the pre-damaged InP due to 390 MeV Xe irradiation is hardly visible. At LNT InP appears to be much more radiation-resistant to swift heavy ion (SHI) irradiation than at RT. Our results show that during SHI irradiation of InP both damage formation and damage annealing occur simultaneously. Whether the first or the second one plays a more important role depends on the SHI mass and energy. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.