"Photoluminescence Study of Electron-Beam-Induced Damage in GaAs/AlGaAs Quantum Well Structures"

We examined electron-beam-(EB) induced damage in GaAs/AlGaAs quantum-well (QW) structures as a function of EB energy and dose by Photoluminescence (PL) measurements. Upon 5 to 25 keV EB irradiation with doses less than 1×1018 cm-2, no effect on the photoluminescence properties was found. Even for a high electron dose of 1×1019 cm-2, only a slight reduction of the PL intensity was observed. The damage profile was found to exhibit an EB energy dependence. The most remarkable damage was induced at EB energies from 10 to 15 keV, extending to 120 nm from the surface. On the contrary, no damage was detected at a low energy of 5 keV and a high energy of 25 keV. This is because the low-energy electrons do not penetrate into the QW regions and the energy-loss rate of the high-energy electrons is too low to cause any damage.