Au nanoparticles doped TiO2 nanowires (NWs) arrays with an average diameter of 100 nm were synthesized through a facile solvothermal method. Thereafter, metal/semiconductor/metal (MSM) structured detectors with Ag electrodes were fabricated on these NWs. The ultraviolet (UV) sensing characteristics of pure TiO2 and Au-doped ones (Au-TiO2) were investigated. Compared with pure TiO2, the Au-TiO2 NWs based device shows a much lower dark current of 1.5 nA at 3 V bias. The low dark current mechanism might be due to the promoted directional transmission of carriers induced by Au doping. The photoresponse is nearly one order of magnitude under 360 nm monochromatic illumina-tion. The Au-TiO2 NWs detector with simple fabrication process, low noise and good overall performance provides a broad way in fabricating UV imaging arrays.