SRIM simulation of irradiation damage by protons in InAs/GaSb type-II superlattices

With the increasing maturity of material preparation and device process technology, InAs/GaSb type-II superlattices (T2SLs) have become a crucial material system for a new generation of high-performance infrared detectors, which can play a significant role in laser detection and satellite remote sensing applications. However, numerous particles such as protons and electrons in the complex space environment are irradiated to produce ionization and displacement damage, making the device’s performance decline and causing work failure. Therefore, in this paper, we employ the Stopping and Range of Ions in Matter (SRIM) to simulate the irradiation damage of protons on InAs/GaSb T2SLs and calculate the vacancy, energy loss, and the nuclear and electronic stopping power. Under different energy and irradiation fluences, which harnesses atomic displacements per atom (DPA) to investigate the irradiation damage of protons on InAs/GaSb T2SLs. The results demonstrate that the higher the proton energy, the more concentrated its trajectory in the target material, and the smaller the cross-section of phase interaction with the target material, as well as the smaller energy transferred to the lattice atoms, resulting in a higher concentration of vacancies introduced by low-energy proton irradiation compared with high-energy protons. Meanwhile, the projected range becomes farther and farther, and the DPA slightly diminishes, indicating that the displacement damage is due to proton irradiation and is decreasing with the increase of proton energy.