Gallium phosphide junctions with low leakage for energy conversion and near ultraviolet detectors

There is a need for semiconductor junctions with very low leakage for energy conversion from low level radioactive or radio-luminescent sources, and low noise blue-green photodiodes. We report the properties of two types of GaP junctions; a Schottky barrier of Pd on liquid phase epitaxy grown n-type GaP and a p+ over n junction grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. Both types of junctions show very low leakage currents and good efficiency for power conversion from low level beta particles, x rays, and blue-green light.