STRUCTURED MATERIALS INDUSTRIES, INC. — Department of Energy SBIR Phase I: 28a

Description

The usage of vacuum- and gaseous photodetectors in particle physics experiments are limited by their expensive, bulky, magnetic intolerant, and fragile nature. Si-based photodetectors provide solutions to these pronounced problems to some extent. In spite of their high volume usage in particle physics experiments, Si-based detectors exhibits low quantum efficiency and low robustness, and are not blind to visible photons without the use of expensive and cumbersome filters. Photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) and other semiconductor based sensors also have implementation issues. A new semiconductor material has shown promise for UV visible-blind sensing. In this SBIR Program, the team of Structured Materials Industries, Inc. (SMI) and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) will develop a large area β-Ga2O3–based semiconductor photodiode to detect the photons emitted in UV due to Cerenkov light in crystals and glasses, scintillation light in neutrino, dark matter, and rare decay experiments in particle physics experiments. Ga2O3 with its large energy bandgap (~ 4.9 eV) and ability to be doped to be conductive will provide a better performance than the alternative wide bandgap materials: GaN, SiC, Si, and ZnMgO for the UV-sensitive PDs. In this Phase I SBIR/STTR project we will show proof of concept that a Schottky type large area β-Ga2O3–based photodiode can, at relatively low cost, be efficiently used in detection of UV light in particle physics experiments and can be packaged economically for conventional use. In addition to the potential use in the particle physics experiments, the large area β-Ga2O3– based UV photodetectors developed in this Phase I/Phase II program will be widely used in military, industrial, and commercial applications; such as: solar observations, UV astronomy, missile tracking, automatization, short-range communication security, as well as environmental and biological research, biological monitoring, forensic, fire sensing, and so on. Our material is also compatible with array processing to make UV imagers.