GaN Heterostructures as Innovative X-ray Imaging Sensors-Change of Paradigm.

Direct conversion of X-ray irradiation using a semiconductor material is an emerging technology in medical and material sciences. Existing technologies face problems, such as sensitivity or resilience. Here, we describe a novel class of X-ray sensors based on GaN thin film and GaN/AlGaN high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs), a promising enabling technology in the modern world of GaN devices for high power, high temperature, high frequency, optoelectronic, and military/space applications. The GaN/AlGaN HEMT-based X-ray sensors offer superior performance, as evidenced by higher sensitivity due to intensification of electrons in the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG), by ionizing radiation. This increase in detector sensitivity, by a factor of 10