Excellent Wavelength Selectivity of p-AlGaN/n-Ga2O3 Solar-Blind UVC PD

Due to the advantages of ultrawide bandgap, chemical stability, self-powered, and low cost, gallium oxide (Ga2O3) based photodetectors (PDs) are considered as one of the most promising solar-blind ultraviolet PDs, having garnered significant attention in fields such as missile warning and flame arc detection. High selective ratios and excellent responsivity are important to reduce the false alarm rate in solar-blind detection. However, due to the lack of p-type Ga2O3, existing Ga2O3-based PN PDs utilized heterostructures with narrower bandgap p-type semiconductors (e.g., p-GaN, p-SiC, etc.), inducing poor selective ratios with visible light and ultraviolet-A/B (UVA/B). Therefore, a high Al content AlGaN was used in this study to form a p-AlGaN/n-Ga2O3 solar-blind ultraviolet-C (UVC) PD. Since the bandgap of p-AlGaN aligned with the UVC region, the device exhibited exceptionally high selective ratios with R247nm/R360nm = 3.71 × 105 and R247nm/R300nm = 1.47 × 105 at 0 V, which surpassed the reported Ga2O3-based PN PDs. The formation of the type-II heterojunction facilitated the effective separation and transport of photogenerated carriers, resulting in high responsivity (0.36 A/W) under zero bias. Overall, the high selective ratios and high responsivity of the p-AlGaN/n-Ga2O3 PD in this paper provided a reliable pathway for self-powered solar-blind PDs with a low false alarm rate.