Extensive Raman-scattering studies have been performed in order to study the structure of ion-implanted GaAs, prior to any anneal. The spectroscopic evidence is consistent with a fine-scale mixture of amorphous and microcrystalline GaAs. Excessive bombardment with 120-keV SiF₃⁺ ions results in a 500-A thick surface layer which is completely amorphous (a-GaAs). A detailed chemical-etch damage depth profile has been completed for 45-keV Be⁺-implanted GaAs, which is not completely amorphized. The damage is characterized using the microcrystalline longitudinal-optical (LO) phonon frequency, line width, and intensity, and the intensity of the a-GaAs component of the Raman spectrum. The damage layer possesses a 1500-A thick surface layer of constant, high damage. This high-damage plateau is followed by a transition region in which the damage level smoothly decreases until the undisturbed crystal is reached near 4000 A. LO intensities were analyzed, within the amorphous/crystalline mixed-phase model, to obtain the volume fractions of the two components. Consistent estimates of the optical absorption in the high-damage plateau were obtained via two independent means. Resonance-Raman experiments were carried out, using laser lines between 1.5 and 2.71 eV. The intensity of the a-GaAs spectral component was found to depend on scattering volume (optical penetration), thus providing an internal intensity standard allowing the effects of scattering volume and scattering efficiencies to be separated. The LO phonon was found to resonate approaching the E₁ electronic transition at 2.9 eV. The strength of the resonance decreases with smaller crystallite size. A new Raman band was observed near 47 cm⁻¹ for photon energies below 2 eV. It resonates at 1.7 eV, near E₀ and not near E₁. I propose that this new feature arises from GaAs acoustic modes made Raman active by defectassisted scattering involving the crystalline/amorphous interface regions. A quantitative analysis is developed, with some success. Intensities of silicon local are observed to remain constant upon annealing, although conductivity increases by several orders of magnitude. The anneal primarily restores the mobility to that of crystalline GaAs. / Ph. D.