Hybrid AlN-SiC deep ultraviolet Schottky barrier photodetectors

Deep ultraviolet (DUV) Schottky barrier photodetectors have been demonstrated by exploiting the epitaxial growth of high quality AlN epilayer on n -type SiC substrate. The fabricated AlNn-SiC hybrid Schottky barrier detectors exhibited a peak responsivity at 200 nm with very sharp cutoff wavelength at 210 nm, very high reverse breakdown voltages (>200 V), very low dark currents (about 10 fA at a reverse bias of 50 V), and high responsivity and DUV to UV/visible rejection ratio. These outstanding features are direct attributes of the fundamental material properties and high quality of AlN epilayers. The fabricated photodetectors also have a thermal energy limited detectivity at zero bias of about 1.0× 1015 cm Hz12 W-1. These results demonstrated that AlN epilayers are an excellent candidate as an active material for DUV optoelectronic device applications.