Robustness of n-GaAs Carrier Spin Properties to 5 MeV Proton Irradiation

Abstract

Modern electronic devices utilize charge to transmit and store information. This leaves the information susceptible to external influences, such as radiation, that can introduce short timescale charge fluctuations and, long term, degrade electronic properties. Encoding information as spin polarizations offers an attractive alternative to electronic logic that should be robust to randomly polarized transient radiation effects. As a preliminary step towards radiation-resistant spintronic devices, we measure the spin properties of n-GaAs as a function of radiation fluence using time-resolved Kerr rotation and photoluminescence spectroscopy. Our results show a modest to negligible change in the long-term electron spin properties up to a fluence of 1x10$^{14}$ (5 MeV protons)/cm$^2$, even as the luminescence decreases by two orders of magnitude.