Optoelectronic Diamond: Growth, Properties, and Photodetection Applications

Abstract

Deep ultraviolet photodetectors have attracted much attention due to their wide applications in the industrial, military, biological and environmental fields. Diamond has a variety of unique characteristics, including a wide bandgap, high thermal conductivity, high breakdown voltage, high carrier mobility, and high radiation hardness, which make it a promising candidate for deep ultraviolet photodetection. With the development of diamond synthesis technology, diamond-based photodetectors have been extensively studied. This study reviews the recent progress involving various types of diamond-based photodetectors, including photoconductors, metal–semiconductor–metal photodiodes, Schottky barrier photodiodes, p–n, and p–i–n photodiodes, heterojunctions, and phototransistors.