Solar Bind AlGaN Field Emission UV Sensors

In this phase I project, The feasibility of an innovative solar blind UV sensor technology based on electron emission from AlGaN thin films will be demonstrated. These sensors use the recently demonstrated field emission from wide band-gap AlGaN films. Inprinciple, the AlGaN field emission UV sensor consists of two electrodes, one of which is coated with thin film AlGaN field emitter, while a metallic plate forms the other electrode (anode). When any UV radiation is impinged on the thin film, theelectron-hole pairs are created in the film increasing the free carrier concentration in the conduction band; thus, modulating the field emission current of the AlGaN field emission device. In addition, the proposed sensor is expected to have very fastresponse time and can easily be integrated into a large area array format. In Phase I, we will demonstrate the core technology by fabricating several small prototypes and evaluating their opto-electronic properties. In Phase II, we will extend thistechnology to produce large format detector arrays.Potential commercial applications of the solar blind ultraviolet detectors include plasma and combustion monitoring, low light level imaging, missile launch recognition sensing, spectrospheric ozoneanalysis, global space weather systems and semiconductor process monitoring.