Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province [2009J05151] ; The titanium dioxide (TiO2) films prepared by sol-gel processing were used to fabricate metal-semiconductor-metal ultraviolet photodetectors. A very low dark current of 5.38 pA (current density of 3.84 nA/cm(2)) at 5 V bias is obtained, which is ascribed to the high effective Schottky barrier between Au and TiO2 films. The x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis demonstrates that the concentration of oxygen vacancies is very low in the surface of the TiO2 films, which is responsible for the high effective Schottky barrier. The devices exhibit a cutoff wavelength at about 380 nm and a large UV-to-visible rejection ratio (340 versus 400 nm) of three orders of magnitude. The peak responsivity of the devices is 17.5 A/W at 5 V bias, indicating the presence of internal photoconductive gain induced by desorption of oxygen on the TiO2 surface. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3537918]