Progress on photovoltaic AlGaN photodiodes for solar-blind ultraviolet photodetection

Abstract

Solar-blind ultraviolet photodetectors (SBPDs) have attracted tremendous attention in the environmental, industrial, military, and biological fields. Aluminum gallium nitride (AlGaN), a kind of representative III-nitride semiconductor, has promising prospects in solar-blind photodetection owing to its tunable wide bandgap and industrial feasibility. Considering the high defect density in the AlGaN epilayer directly grown on a sapphire substrate, employing an AlN/sapphire template turns out to be an effective method to achieve a high-quality AlGaN epilayer, thereby enhancing the SBPD performances. In recent years, a variety of remarkable breakthroughs have been achieved in the SBPDs. In this paper, the progress on photovoltaic AlGaN-based SBPDs is reviewed. First, the basic physical properties of AlGaN are introduced. Then, fabrication methods and defect annihilation of the AlN/sapphire template are discussed. Various photovoltaic SBPDs are further summarized, including Schottky barrier, metal-semiconductor-metal, p-n/p-i-n and avalanche photodiodes. Furthermore, surface modification and photoelectrochemical cell techniques are introduced. Benefitting from the development of fabrication techniques and optoelectronic devices, photovoltaic AlGaN photodiodes exhibit a promising prospect in solar-blind ultraviolet photodetection.