An a-Si:H/SiGe/Si punchthrough heterojunction phototransistors (PTHPTs), responding to a wavelength of 850 nm, have been proposed and demonstrated in this work. The dramatic difference between PTHPTs and conventional heterojunction phototransistors is that the base is completely depleted in the PTHPTs, thus a, larger optical gain is achieved due to the lack of a neutral base. Furthermore, the use of low-temperature a-Si: H instead of conventional crystalline silicon, a strained SiGe can be preserved at the interface of base and emitter, allowing ultrashallow junctions and abrupt doping profiles. Another advantage is that the a-Si:H can provide large valence-band discontinuity between base and emitter, avoiding photogenerated holes injected from base to emitter, and hence a larger collector current. In addition, we employed a thin Al-coating covered on the surface of emitter to enhance the collection of photogenerated holes. In comparison to the PTHPTS without the thin-Al coating, the optical gain of PTHPTs with thin-Al coating is increased from 922 to 3970 at 5-V bias voltage, responding to a light source of 850 nm with 0.028 mW. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.