The results of a study of electrochemically fabricated Pt/n-InP Schottky contacts and the feasibility of the process for InP-based metal-semiconductor-metal photodetectors are reported in the present paper. The electrochemical process yields a significant improvement of Schottky-barrier properties. This is mainly attributed to two advantages of the process : first, the in situ etching of the semiconductor surface just prior to Schottky contact formation and second, the damage-free metallization. The ideality factor and barrier height obtained for the Pt/n-InP Schottky contacts are 1.03 and 0.65 eV; respectively A damage-free Pt/InP interface is revealed by the deep-level transient spectroscopy spectrum. The x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy sputter-profile of the electrochemically fabricated Pt/InP is presented. The metal-semiconductor-metal photodetector structures of an active area of n-InP, 100 x 100 mu m fabricated by the same process, show a dark current df 10 nA and a capacitance of 0.65 pF at a 5 V bias.