Highly crystallized ZnO–Ga2O3 core–shell heterostructure microwire is synthesized by a simple one‐step chemical vapor deposition method, and constructed into a self‐powered solar‐blind (200–280 nm) photodetector with a sharp cutoff wavelength at 266 nm. The device shows an ultrahigh responsivity (9.7 mA W−1) at 251 nm with a high UV/visible rejection ratio (R251 nm/R400 nm) of 6.9 × 102 under zero bias. The self‐powered device has a fast response speed with rise time shorter than 100 µs and decay time of 900 µs, respectively. The ultrahigh responsivity, high UV/visible rejection ratio, and fast response speed make it highly suitable in practical self‐powered solar‐blind detection. Additinoally, this microstructure heterojunction design method would provide a new approach to realize the high‐performance self‐powered photodetectors.

Solar radiation, especially ultraviolet (UV) light, is a major hazard for most skin-related cancers. The growing needs for wearable health monitoring systems call for a high-performance real-time UV sensor to prevent skin diseases caused by excess UV exposure. To this end, here a novel self-powered p-CuZnS/n-TiO UV photodetector (PD) with high performance is successfully developed (responsivity of 2.54 mA W at 0 V toward 300 nm). Moreover, by effectively replacing the Ti foil with a thin Ti wire for the anodization process, the conventional planar rigid device is artfully turned into a fiber-shaped flexible and wearable one. The fiber-shaped device shows an outstanding responsivity of 640 A W , external quantum efficiency of 2.3 × 10 %, and photocurrent of ≈4 mA at 3 V, exceeding those of most current UV PDs. Its ultrahigh photocurrent enables it to be easily integrated with commercial electronics to function as a real-time monitor system. Thus, the first real-time wearable UV radiation sensor that reads out ambient UV power density and transmits data to smart phones via wifi is demonstrated. This work not only presents a promising wearable health monitor, but also provides a general strategy for designing and fabricating smart wearable electronic devices.

Self‐powered ultraviolet (UV) photodetectors, which have vast applications in the military and for civilian purposes, have become particularly attractive in recent years due to their advantages of high sensitivity, ultrasmall size, and low power consumption. In particular, self‐powered UV photodetectors driven by a built‐in electric field cannot only detect UV signals but also be powered by the incident signals instead of external power. In this concept, the key issues and most recent developments on photovoltaic type UV photodetectors driven by p–n homojunction, heterojunction, and Schottky junction are surveyed. This should generate extensive interest in this field and encourage more researchers to engage in and tackle the scientific challenges.

A high responsivity self-powered solar-blind deep UV (DUV) photodetector with high rejection ratio was proposed based on inorganic/organic hybrid p–n junction. Owing to the high crystallized β-Ga2O3 and excellent transparent conductive polymer PEDOT:PSS, the device exhibited ultrahigh responsivity of 2.6 A/W at 245 nm with a sharp cutoff wavelength at 255 nm without any power supply. The responsivity is much larger than that of previous solar-blind DUV photodetectors. Moreover, the device exhibited an ultrahigh solar-blind/UV rejection ratio (R 245 nm/R 280 nm) of 103, which is two orders of magnitude larger than the average value reported in Ga2O3-based solar-blind photodetectors. In addition, the photodetector shows a narrow bandpass response of only 17 nm in width. This work might be of great value in developing a high wavelength selective DUV photodetector with respect to low cost for future energy-efficient photoelectric devices.

Self-powered solar-blind UV photodetector based on β-Ga2O3/polyaniline core–shell heterojunction with high detectivity (D* = 1.5 × 1011 Jones) and high Rpeak/R400 rejection ratio (3 × 102).