Abstract: A semiconductor device having a photosensitive semiconductor element, for example a photoresistor, having a photosensitive layer of high-ohmic material, preferably gold-compensated silicon, which is present on a high-ohmic substrate region and which is covered with a highly doped semiconductor surface layer.According to the invention, an epitaxial intermediate layer is present between the substrate region and the photosensitive layer and has a resistivity which lies between that of the photosensitive layer and that of the substrate region, while the surface layer, which is preferably partly etched away prior to the provision of the electrode, is grown epitaxially on the photosensitive layer.