High-Performance and Radiation Tolerant Ultraviolet Photodetector Based on 3C-SiC Nanowire

Silicon carbide (SiC) nanowires (NWs) are promising candidates for ultraviolet (UV) photodetectors (PDs) in space applications due to their wide bandgap, lightweight, low power consumption, and high radiation tolerance. In this study, we report a high-performance and radiation-tolerant UV PD based on a SiC NW field-effect transistor (FET). The PD exhibits an exceptionally high responsivity of 245.48 A W–1 and a remarkable detectivity of 2.61 × 109 Jones. The degradation in the PD’s detection performance was negligible during 1 MeV proton irradiation up to a fluence of 2.1 × 1012 cm–2, demonstrating an outstanding radiation tolerance. Furthermore, the performance degradation process and underlying mechanism of the PD under an extremely high irradiation fluence of 1 × 1015 cm–2 were investigated. The results are crucial for designing and optimizing UV PDs based on SiC NWs for future space applications.