AMORPHOUS SILICON SILICON CARBIDE PHOTODIODES WITH EXCELLENT SENSITIVITY AND SELECTIVITY IN THE VACUUM-ULTRAVIOLET SPECTRUM/

An innovative family of thin-film photodetectors optimized for the ult raviolet (UV) spectrum is presented here. The devices are made of hydr ogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) and silicon carbide (a-SiC:H) on g lass substrates. At room temperature, the photodetectors exhibit value s of quantum efficiency of 21% in the vacuum UV and 0.08% at 750 nm, w ithout external voltage. The great advantage of this technology lies i n the possibility to produce low-cost, large-area arrays of photodetec tors on glass or flexible substrates. All these features candidate the a-Si/SiC:H photodetectors as possible, concurrent to specialized comm ercial devices. (C) 1995 American Institute of Physics.