Recently, Ga2O3-based, solar-blind photodetectors (PDs) have been extensively studied for various commercial and military applications. However, to date, studies have focused only on the crystalline phases, especially β-Ga2O3, and the crystalline quality must be carefully controlled because of its strong impact on device characteristics. Based on previous reports, amorphous-semiconductor-based PDs can also be expected to exhibit excellent photodetection characteristics. In this work, amorphous gallium oxide thin films were deposited by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering, and the metal–semiconductor–metal (MSM) PD was fabricated and compared with a β-Ga2O3 film prepared side-by-side as the control sample. The as-sputtered film possessed a high density of defects, including structural disorders, oxygen vacancies, and likely, dangling bonds, resulting in record-high responsivity (70.26 A/W) for a thin-film-type gallium oxide PD due to a high internal gain and the contribution of extrinsic transitions despite a relatively large dark current. The high sensitivity was further confirmed by a high 250 nm/350 nm rejection ratio exceeding 105, the specific detectivity as large as 1.26 × 1014 Jones, and a cutoff wavelength of 265.5 nm. A rapid recovery (0.10 s) rather than a strong, persistent photoconductivity was observed and attributed to effective surface recombination. Our findings contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of highly nonstoichiometric amorphous gallium oxide thin films and reveal additional pathways for the development of high-performance, solar-blind PDs that are inexpensive, large-area, and suitable for mass production.

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We report on the fabrication of a piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer (pMUT) and its application to photoacoustic imaging. With c-axis orientation, AlN was grown on a 300 nm-thick SiO2 film and a 200 nm-thick bottom electrode at room temperature. The device consists of SiO2, bottom electrode, AlN films, upper electrode, and polyimide protective layer. An area ratio of 0.45 was used between the upper electrode and the vibration area of the pMUT to provide an optimal sensitivity of transducer. Its resonant frequency was measured to be 2.885 MHz, and the coupling coefficient in the range of 2.38%–3.71%. The fabricated pMUT was integrated with a photoacoustic imaging system and photoacoustic image of a phantom was obtained. The resolution of the system was measured to be about 240 μm.

Two Surface acoustic wave (SAW) resonators were fabricated on langasite substrates with Euler angle of (0°, 138.5°, 117°) and (0°, 138.5°, 27°). A dipole antenna was bonded to the prepared SAW resonator to form a wireless sensor. The characteristics of the SAW sensors were measured by wireless frequency domain interrogation methods from 20 °C to 600 °C. Different temperature behaviors of the sensors were observed. Strain sensing was achieved using a cantilever configuration. The sensors were measured under applied strain from 20 °C to 500 °C. The shift of the resonance frequency contributed merely by strain is extracted from the combined effects of temperature and strain. Both the strain factors of the two SAW sensors increase with rising ambient temperature, and the SAW sensor deposited on (0°, 138.5°, 117°) cut is more sensitive to applied strain. The measurement errors of the two sensors are also discussed. The relative errors of the two sensors are between 0.63% and 2.09%. Even at 500 °C, the hysteresis errors of the two sensors are less than 5%.

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