Large area Ag–TiO2 UV radiation sensor fabricated on a thermally oxidized titanium chip

A Schottky-type ultraviolet (UV) light sensor is fabricated on a thermally oxidized titanium chip. The device is of Ag–TiO2–Ti structure, and the Schottky junction between silver and rutile is formed subsequent to the vacuum deposition of silver on the thermally grown rutile layer by a controlled thermal annealing in air. The device operates at −300 mV biasing established between silver and titanium electrodes. The dark reverse current of this diode increases four orders of magnitude when illuminated with UV light (355 nm) of 10 μW/mm2 intensity. The device is almost insensitive to visible light and requires no filtering when used for ambient UV level detection. The operation mechanism of the device is described by photonic electron–hole pair generation in the carrier depleted titanium dioxide layer adjacent to the silver electrode. The electrode-to-electrode distance is 1 μm only affording much faster performance compared to photoconductive UV detectors fabricated based on titanium dioxide; the response and recovery times of the device are 10 ms and 17 ms, respectively. At its standby mode, a 1 mm2 active area device consumes less than 10 pW of electric power. Sensors with sensitive areas as large as ∼10 mm2 are easy to fabricate. The fabricated devices are rugged, resistant to UV degradation, and cost effective.