Solar-blind photodiodes composed of a Au Schottky contact and a β-Ga2O3 single crystal with a high resistivity cap layer

We fabricated Ga2O3 photodiodes composed of a Au Schottky contact and a β-Ga2O3 single-crystal substrate with a sol–gel prepared high resistivity cap layer. The photodiodes with the cap layer showed solar-blind photosensitivity under both forward and reverse biases in contrast to conventional Schottky photodiodes. Finally, we proposed energy band diagram of the i-n junction to determine the photodetection mechanism of our photodiodes. The photoconductive device model explained the high responsivity of over 1 A/W at forward bias. In this model, the cap layer behaves like a photoconductor, and the substrate behaves like an electrode that replenishes electrons.