Study of hydrogen detection response time with Pt-gated diodes fabricated on AlGaN/GaN heterostructure

The hydrogen detection response time of Pt-gated diode sensors fabricated on AlGaN/GaN heterostructure as a function of the hydrogen concentration was investigated. A new method to extract the response time, taking the derivative of diode current, was proposed and shown to reduce the response time of detecting 1% hydrogen by about 60% as compared to the response time defined as the diode current reaching 90% of its total changes, t90. Hydrogen-sensing experiments were conducted at different temperatures, and an Arrhenius plot of the data determined an activation energy of 17.7 kJ/mole for the sensing process.