The effect of neutron irradiation on the microhardness of gallium arsenide

We have studied the effect of neutron irradiation on the microhardness of n-GaAs crystals. It is shown that the growth and saturation of microhardness with increasing radiation dose Φ, as previously reported in the literature, take place only in the dose range Φ～10¹⁵?5×10¹⁶ cm^?2. As the neutron dose is increased further, the microhardness continues to grow due to the increasing role of the radiation-induced disordered regions in n-GaAs.