Large-Area Vacuum Ultraviolet Sensors

Pt/(n-doped GaN) Schottky-barrier diodes having active areas as large as 1 cm square have been designed and fabricated as prototypes of photodetectors for the vacuum ultraviolet portion (wavelengths approximately equal 200 nm) of the solar spectrum. In addition to having adequate sensitivity to photons in this wavelength range, these photodetectors are required to be insensitive to visible and infrared components of sunlight and to have relatively low levels of dark current.