High responsivity solar-blind UV photodetector based on single centimeter-sized Sn-doped β-Ga2O3 microwire

In recent years, wide bandgap β-Ga2O3 semiconductor is considered as a promising UV photodetector material because of its large bandgap, intrinsic solar-blind and high thermal and chemical stabilities. In this paper, a high performance solar-blind UV photodetector based on single Sn-doped Ga2O3 microwire was obtained by a simple method. Using non-toxic mixed powders (SnO2, Ga2O3 and graphite) as source materials, the Sn-doped β-Ga2O3 microwires were successfully prepared using traditional chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technology, and the metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) photoconductive detector based on Sn-doped single β-Ga2O3 microwire was fabricated. The responsivity and external quantum efficiency can reach up to 12 A/W and 5887% under 254 nm light with a light intensity of 100 μW/cm2 under 10 V. Moreover, single microwire device have a low dark current (1.7 nA), a high Ilight/Idark ratio (2.5 × 103), and a fast rise time and decay time of 0.37 s and 0.25 s, respectively. This work provides a low-cost and feasible method for the preparation of high-performance photodetectors based on the β-Ga2O3 microwires. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd