Role of mechanical stresses in gradual degradation of light-emitting diodes and injection lasers

An experimental study showed that uniaxial compression (about 3000 kgf/cm₂) accelerated the gradual degradation of gallium arsenide diodes. This was interpreted with the aid of a dislocation model in which centers of accelerated degradation were attributed to originally present dislocations that were multiplied by climb and slip processes. It was suggested that the climb of dislocations was activated by nonradiative recombination of electron-hole pairs.