Basic design requirements are presented for pyroelectric detectors to be used effectively when the radiation source emits part or all of its power in the vacuum ultraviolet range, as is the case for a typical plasma in magnetic confinement fusion research. The difficulty associated with the VUV wavelength range lies in the high photoelectric yield of the associated energetic photons. A relatively inexpensive, commercially available detector was modified to eliminate the spurious currents resulting from photoelectrons. The modifications have little effect on the basic characteristics of the commercial detector (time response, sensitivity, etc). ©1996 American Institute of Physics.