Semiconductor ultraviolet detectors

This paper presents an overview of semiconductor ultraviolet (UV) detectors that are currently available and associated technologies that are undergoing further development. At the beginning, the classification of UV detectors and general requirements imposed on these detectors are presented. Further consideration are restricted to modern semiconductor UV detectors, so the current state-of-the-art of different types of semiconductor UV detectors is presented. Hitherto, the semiconductor UV detectors have been mainly fabricated using Si. Industries such as the aerospace, automotive, petroleum, and others have continuously provided the impetus pushing the development of fringe technologies which are tolerant of increasingly high temperatures and hostile environments. As a result, the main effort are currently directed to a new generation of UV detectors fabricated from wide-band-gap semiconductors between them the most promising are diamond and AlGaN. The latest progress in development of AlGaN UV detectors is finally described in detail.