AlGaN-based deep ultraviolet (DUV) light emitting diodes (LEDs) are irradiated by fast neutrons, with optical and electrical properties analyzed in detail. Significant enhancement of output power is observed under neutron irradiation fluences of 6.0 × 10¹² and 1.5 × 10¹³ cm⁻². However, the device exhibits performance degradation as the fluence increases to 1.0 × 10¹⁴ cm⁻². As previous observations are limited to degradation. Further analysis reveals that there exist two different competitive mechanisms of neutron radiation effect on DUV LEDs. The enhancement of the output power is attributed to the increased efficiency of the carriers injected into the irradiated multi-quantum wells (MQWs). Meanwhile, neutron irradiation-induced nitrogen vacancies in p-AlGaN electron blocking layer increase the leakage of the current dominating the device performance degradation, in contrast with results from former studies on longer wavelength GaN-based LEDs. Those findings are not only helpful to further enrich the degradation mechanism of neutron irradiated DUV LEDs, but also provide a fresh idea to improve their luminous characteristics.

基于 AlGaN 的深紫外 (DUV) 发光二极管 (LED) 由快中子照射，并详细分析了光学和电学特性。在6.0 × 10 ¹²和1.5 × 10 ¹³ cm ^{-2 的}中子辐射通量下观察到输出功率的显着增强。然而，当注量增加到 1.0 × 10 ¹⁴ cm ^{-2 时}，器件表现出性能下降. 由于以前的观察仅限于退化。进一步分析表明，中子辐射对深紫外 LED 的影响存在两种不同的竞争机制。输出功率的增强归因于注入受辐射多量子阱 (MQW) 的载流子效率的提高。同时，与之前对较长波长 GaN 基 LED 的研究结果相反，p-AlGaN 电子阻挡层中中子辐照引起的氮空位增加了电流泄漏，从而导致器件性能下降。这些发现不仅有助于进一步丰富中子辐照深紫外 LED 的降解机制，而且为改善其发光特性提供了新思路。