The Impact of High Energy Ion Irradiation Upon CO Gas Sensitivity of Nanostructured GaN Epilayers

Abstract

Photoelectrochemically nanostructured GaN epilayers were found to exhibit good sensitivity towards CO in the temperature range from 180 to 280°C. We show that subjection of nanostructured GaN samples to 166 MeV Xe+23 ion irradiation causes considerable reduction of the gas sensitivity, while post-irradiation rapid thermal annealing results in sensitivity restoration, the effect being dependent upon the dose of irradiation and annealing temperature. A 50 % restoration of the relative sensitivity is demonstrated after rapid thermal annealing for 1 min at 800°C in samples irradiated by Xe+23 ions at a dose of 1012 cm-2.